China says US warship sailing in Taiwan Strait 'provocative'

AUSwarshipsailed through the sensitiveTaiwanStraiton Saturday, part of what theUSmilitary calls routine activity but whichChinadescribed as "provocative".

TheUSNavy's 7th Fleet said the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyerUSSRalph Johnson was conducting a "routine" transit through international waters.

"The ship's transit through theTaiwanStraitdemonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," 7th Fleet spokesperson Nicholas Lingo said in a statement. "The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."

The Eastern Theatre Command ofChina's People's Liberation Army monitored the passage, which a spokesperson in a statement called a "provocative act."

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction through theStrait, that its forces had monitored its passage and observed nothing out of the ordinary.

Taiwanis currently in a heightened state of alert due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, nervous thatChinamay try to take advantage of the situation to make a move on the island though the government has reported no unusual Chinese manoeuvres.

Last year,USnaval ships transited theStraitroughly monthly. Saturday'ssailingwas the first since November.

Chinaclaims democratically ruledTaiwanas its own territory and has mounted repeated air force missions intoTaiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past two years, provoking anger inTaipei.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said that on Saturday eight Chinese aircraft, six fighters and two anti-submarine aircraft,flew into its ADIZ, to the northeast of theTaiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of the SouthChinaSea.

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Beijing callsTaiwanthe most sensitive and important issue in its relations with Washington.

Like most countries, the United States has no formal diplomatic ties withTaiwanbut is its most important international backer and arms supplier.