US warship steams through the Taiwan Strait

The US military says it sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait, a move likely to anger China.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian.

The US military says it sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait, a move likely to anger China during a period of tense relations between Washington and Beijing.

Taiwan is among a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which include a trade war, US sanctions and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea, where the US also conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.

China on Wednesday warned that it was ready for war if there was any move towards Taiwan’s independence, accusing the US of undermining global stability and denouncing its arms sales to the self-ruled island.

The US warship was identified as USS Antietam, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser.

“The transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Clay Doss, a spokesman for the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said yesterday.

The voyage risks further raising tensions with China but is likely to be viewed by Taiwan as a sign of support from Donald Trump’s administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.

The US has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help provide the island with the means to defend itself and is its main source of arms.

Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said the threat of Taiwan separatism was growing and warned that those who were seeking the democratic island’s independence would meet a dead end.

“If anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will certainly fight, resolutely defending the country’s sovereign unity and territorial integrity,” he said.

Reuters