US Navy conducts second « freedom of navigation » exercise in waterway separating rivals China and Taiwan
Two U. S. warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait Monday.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning told reporters that the USS Curtis Wilbur and the USS Antietam conducted what he described as a « routine transit » to demonstrate the United States; commitment to « a free and open Indo-Pacific. »
The U. S. Navy conducted a similar « freedom of navigation » exercise through the expansive waterway that separate China and Taiwan back in July.
Monday’s exercise took place amid China’s increasing pressure on Taiwan in recent months. It broke off relations with the self-ruled island in 2016 when President Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016 and refused to accept Beijing’s « One China » principle that Taiwan belongs under the mainland’s rule.
