BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s military said on Thursday that it had dispatched naval and air forces to monitor and warn a U.S. guided missile destroyer that sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.
China held its latest round of war games around Taiwan earlier this month, drawing condemnation from Taipei and concern from the United States and its allies.
The Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army named the ship as the guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence, and said it passed through the strait on Wednesday in an act of “public hyping”.
“Relevant remarks by the United States have inverted right and wrong, distorted legal principles, confused the public and misled international perception,” the command said in a statement, without specifying which comments it was referring to.
“We are telling the United States to stop their distortions and hyping and to work together to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
The U.S. Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Its last publicly announced sailing through the strait was in February.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Additional reporting and writing by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Aidan Lewis)
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