The Japan-based USS John S. McCain made the routine transit in accordance with international law, Lieutenant Joe Keiley, a spokesman for the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, said in a statement.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The US military will continue to fly, sail and operate where international law permits,” Keiley said.
The issue of Taiwan’s self-government was one of the first major foreign policy challenges for US President Joe Biden.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of nearly 24 million people located off the southeast coast of mainland China, despite the two parties having been separately ruled for more than seven decades.
American warships cruising the Taiwan Strait are seen by Beijing as provocations that threaten stability in the region by encouraging supporters of Taiwanese independence.
The last transit occurred on New Year’s Eve when the McCain and a second destroyer, the USS Curtis Wilbur, passed through the strait, according to statements from the US Navy.
US warships crossed the waterways 13 times in 2020, according to the US 7th Fleet, the most since 12 such crossings in 2016, the last year of former President Barack Obama’s administration.
The US showed a strong commitment to the defense of Taiwan during the administration of former President Donald Trump by approving the sale of advanced military hardware to Taipei, including F-16 fighter jets, advanced missiles, and battle tanks, while moving to high-level envoys. sent the island.
Recent statements from the Biden government suggest these actions will not be pushed back.
“There is a strong and long-standing two-party involvement in Taiwan,” new US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his confirmation hearing last week. “Part of that commitment is to make sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself against aggression. And that’s a commitment that will absolutely endure in a Biden government.”