The U.S. Navy poked China in the face again, with the July 19 passage of the guided missile destroyer USS Benfold through the Taiwan Strait. Ignoring that Taiwan is part of China, the Navy cited an international law that defines territorial waters as extending 12 nautical miles from a country’s coastline and regularly sends its warships through the strait in what it calls freedom of navigation operations. The Benfold transited “through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” said US 7th Fleet spokesperson Lt. Nicholas Lingo.
The Chinese denounced the U.S. operation as a threat to the stability of the region. “The frequent provocations and power shows made by the US side have fully proven that the US is the disrupter of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and the maker of security risk in the region,” Col. Shi Yi, spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement. “Troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command are on high alert at all times to resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The Benfold is the same ship that carried out two provocations against China in the South China Sea last week.
