![]() Since those exercises officially ended, PLA warplanes have continued to cross the median line daily, usually in double-digit numbers, according to statistics from Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. The maneuvers included launching ballistic missiles into waters around Taiwan, numerous Chinese warships steaming in the Taiwan Strait and dozens of PLA warplanes breaching the median line – the midway point between mainland China and Taiwan that Beijing says it does not recognize but had largely respected. Within minutes of Pelosi landing in Taiwan on August 2, the PLA announced four days of military exercises in six zones encircling the island. The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said it was monitoring the two ships, maintaining a high alert and was “ready to thwart any provocation.”īeijing is mad about Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. “This was planned long ago,” Kirby added. John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Sunday that the two US Navy warships transiting the Taiwan Strait sent a “very clear” and “very consistent” message that “the United States military will sail, fly and operate wherever international law permits us to do so.” The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows,” it said. The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. “These ships (are transiting) through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state. It said the transit was “ongoing” and that there had been “no interference from foreign military forces so far.” The guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville were on Sunday making the voyage “through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the US 7th Fleet in Japan said in a statement. ![]() Two United States Navy warships have entered the Taiwan Strait in what is the first US naval transit in the waterway since US-China tensions spiked this month over a visit to the island by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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