About 36 hours after President Joe Biden told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” aired on Sept. 18 that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if China launched a military assault on the island, the U.S. and Canadian navies sent ships through the Taiwan Strait. The guided missile destroyer USS Higgins, accompanied by His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Vancouver, a frigate, sailed through the strait in Tuesday, Sept. 20, in what a U.S. Navy spokesman claimed was a “routine Taiwan Strait transit,” reported CNN.
The two ships “transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” the spokesman said. The transit “demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific.” The ept. 20 transit followed by three weeks that of the U.S. Navy cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville on Aug. 28.
