HEATING UP

U.S. Sends Warships Through Taiwan Strait, First Passage After Pelosi Visit that Sparked China Tensions

“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said the U.S. Navy in a statement.

Two Navy warships passed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, conducting a routine transit through the area that the Navy described as “beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State.” The passage of the USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville was the first public display of a U.S. presence since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in early August, the first high-profile U.S. visit to the island nation in decades. The move sparked renewed tensions between the sovereign nation and China, which has reaffirmed as recently as October 2021 that it intends to reunify with the island. In a July call between President Biden and President Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader warned that Pelosi’s visit to the island would spell “serious consequences,” according to BBC. The Navy, in a statement released Saturday, said that the “ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”