[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] As the United States deployed its military aircraft over the skies surrounding Taiwan, escalating tensions between the US and China, a US Navy cruiser also passed through the Taiwan Strait.
Regarding the earlier show of force by Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait, the US is interpreted as sending support to Taiwan's pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen, who won re-election last January, and a warning against China's military threats.
The Taiwan Strait, connecting the East China Sea and the South China Sea between China and Taiwan, is a strategic chokepoint approximately 400 km long and 150?200 km wide, regarded by China as its "front sea."
According to Taiwanese media on the 16th, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense announced that a US warship sailed from north to south through the northern part of the Taiwan Strait the previous morning.
The Ministry emphasized that the US warship's passage through the Taiwan Strait was a routine navigation mission.
It added that through intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance of the surrounding waters and airspace near Taiwan, all such situations are being fully monitored and responded to.
The media, citing sources, reported that the US warship passing through the Taiwan Strait was the US Navy missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62).
On the 9th and 10th of this month, China conducted flight training using air force aircraft including bombers and fighters, flying through the Taiwan Strait and nearby seas to the Western Pacific region for two consecutive days.
The Taiwanese Air Force immediately scrambled F-16 fighters to respond when Chinese military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and approached the Taiwanese side.
On the 12th, one US Air Force special operations MC-130J Commando II and two B-52H bombers, and on the 13th, a US Navy maritime patrol aircraft P-3C flew around the waters near Taiwan, again raising tensions in these areas.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
