Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Two U.S. Navy warships are sailing in international waters in the Taiwan Strait, three U.S. officials told Reuters, the first such operation since tensions with China rose over the president’s visit of the US House, Nancy Pelosi, in Taiwan. In recent years, US warships, and occasionally those from allied nations such as Britain and Canada, have regularly crossed the straits, angering Beijing. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory against the objections of the democratically elected government in Taipei, began military exercises near the island after Pelosi’s visit in early August, and those exercises have continued. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register The trip angered Beijing, which saw it as an attempt by the US to interfere in China’s internal affairs. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday that the US Navy cruisers Chancellorsville and Antietam were carrying out the operation, which was still ongoing. Such operations typically take eight to 12 hours to complete and are closely monitored by the Chinese military. The narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists, who founded the People’s Republic of China. Pelosi was followed about a week later by a group of five other US lawmakers, with China’s military responding by conducting more exercises near Taiwan. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a U.S. lawmaker on the Senate Commerce and Armed Services committees, arrived in Taiwan on Thursday for the third visit by a U.S. official this month, defying pressure from Beijing to freeze travel. The Biden administration has sought to keep tensions between Washington and Beijing, fueled by the visits, from escalating into conflict by reiterating that such congressional trips are routine. The United States does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself. China has never ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan’s government says the People’s Republic of China has never ruled the island and therefore has no right to claim it, and that only its 23 million people can decide their future. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Idrees Ali. Editor: Christopher Cushing Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Idrees Ali Thomson Reuters National Security Correspondent focusing on the Pentagon in Washington Reports on US military activity and operations around the world and their impact. He has reported from more than 22 countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and much of the Middle East, Asia and Europe. From Karachi, Pakistan.
