US navy again sails through Taiwan Strait, angering China
Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship
Washington — The US military said it sent two navy ships through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, its latest transit through the sensitive waterway, angering China at a time of tense relations between the world’s two biggest economies. Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a bitter 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. The voyage will be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing, which views the island as a breakaway province. The transit was carried out by the destroyer Preble and the Navy oil tanker Walter S Diehl, a US military spokesman said.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesperson for the US Navy’s Seventh F...
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