The US Navy, confirming a Reuters report, said the cruisers Chancellorsville and Antietam were conducting the ongoing operation. Such operations typically take eight to 12 hours to complete and are closely monitored by China’s military. In recent years, US warships, and sometimes those from allied nations such as Britain and Canada, have regularly crossed the strait, drawing the ire of China, which claims Taiwan over the objections of its democratically elected government. Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan in early August angered China, which saw it as an attempt by the US to interfere in its internal affairs. China then began military exercises near the island, which have continued ever since. “These (US) ships crossed a corridor in the straits that is beyond the territorial waters of any coastal state,” the US navy said. USS Chancellorsville, one of the ships currently in the Taiwan Strait.AP The operation demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the US military flies, sails and operates wherever international law allows, the navy said. The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said it was monitoring the ships and warning them. “Troops in theater remain on high alert and are ready to prevent any provocation at any time,” he added in a statement. Taiwan’s defense ministry said the ships were sailing south and that its forces were monitoring, but that “the situation was normal”. 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’s visit to Taiwan was followed about a week later by a group of five other US lawmakers, with China’s military responding by conducting more exercises near the island. This is the first time since Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan that US warships have been active in the region. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu 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 China to freeze travel. US President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to keep tensions between Washington and Beijing from escalating into conflict, reiterating that congressional travel is 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 says the People’s Republic of China never ruled the island and so has no claim to it, and that only Taiwan’s 23 million people can decide their future.
