Two U.S. Navy warships have sailed through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait, three U.S. officials said, in what is being described as the first operation after tensions with China escalated due to the visit of the Speaker of the U.S. Congress, Nancy Pelosi. in Taiwan.
In recent years, US warships – and temporarily also those of allied countries such as Great Britain and Canada – conduct routine cruises in the strait, inciting anger in Beijing.
China had begun military exercises near the island after Pelosi’s visit in early August — where the exercises continued for weeks.
Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan angered China, which described it as an attempt by the US to “get involved in the country’s internal affairs”.
These American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said that the battleships of the US Navy, Chanceloresville and Antietam, are conducting operations in this region.
The Taiwan Strait has often been a source of rising tensions since the Chinese government withdrew from Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists who founded the People’s Republic of China.