Us navy, coast guard ships pass through strategic taiwan strait

This risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from the US amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing. The United

States sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the military said, as the United States increases the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite

opposition from China. The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but will likely be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from Washington amid growing friction between

Taipei and Beijing. The two ships were identified as the Navy Curtis Wilbur destroyer and the Coast Guard Bertholf cutter, a US military statement said. "The ships' transit

through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," the statement said. "The US will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international

law allows," it added. There was no immediate reaction from Beijing. In Taipei, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said the ships had passed through the Taiwan Strait from the southwest

and proceeded in a northerly direction. Taiwan's armed forces monitored their progress to "ensure regional stability and security of the coastal border region", the ministry

said, adding nothing out of the ordinary was observed and there was no cause for alarm. Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a

trade war, US sanctions and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the United States also conducts freedom of navigation patrols. Taiwan President

Tsai Ing-wen will stop over in Hawaii this week at the end of a tour of the Pacific, to China's anger. Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the

democratic island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms. The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taiwan more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010. China has been

ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island, which it considers a wayward province of "one China" and sacred Chinese territory. China has repeatedly sent military

aircraft and ships to circle the island on drills in the past few years and worked to isolate the island internationally, whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies. The US Defense

Intelligence Agency released a report earlier this year describing Taiwan as the "primary driver" for China's military modernization, which it said had made major advances in

recent years. US President Donald Trump has said trade negotiations with China were progressing and a final agreement "will probably happen," adding that his call for tariffs to

remain on Chinese imported goods for some time did not mean talks were in trouble.