During meetings with US counterparts in the past few months, Chinese military officials repeatedly said that the Taiwan Strait is not within international waters, generating concern in Washington, a person familiar with the matter said.
The statement, which disputes the US interpretation of international law, has been delivered to the US government by Chinese officials on multiple occasions and at multiple levels, the person said.
The US and key allies routinely send naval vessels through the waterway as part of freedom of navigation exercises, with the view that much of the strait is in international waters.
Photo: Reuters
China has long asserted that the Taiwan Strait is part of its exclusive economic zone, and takes the view there are limits to the activities of foreign military vessels in those waters.
Although China regularly protests US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters had never previously been a talking point in meetings with US officials.
It is not clear whether the assertions indicate that China might take further steps to confront naval vessels that enter and transit the Taiwan Strait.
The US also conducts freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea to challenge Chinese territorial claims around disputed land features.
“The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting through the Taiwan Strait,” Pentagon spokesman Martin Meiners said.
During a speech on Saturday at the IISS Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that China was unilaterally attempting to change the “status quo” regarding Taiwan.
“Our policy hasn’t changed,” Austin said. “But unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be true for the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
“We’re seeing growing coercion from Beijing,” Austin told delegates at the security forum. “We’ve witnessed a steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan. That includes PLA [China’s People’s Liberation Army] aircraft flying near Taiwan in record numbers in recent months, and on a nearly daily basis.”
Austin’s speech was followed on Sunday by Chinese Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和), who repeatedly expressed Beijing’s willingness to fight to prevent a formal split by the democratically elected government in Taipei.
Wei did not explicitly refer to the legal status of the Taiwan Strait.
“If anyone dares to secede Taiwan from China, we will not hesitate to fight,” Wei said, reaffirming Beijing’s longstanding position on the dispute. “We will fight at all costs, and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China.”
The Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement on Sunday that Wei’s public threatening of the nation at an international event proved Beijing was the source of regional disturbance, calling his comments “tantamount to a declaration of war.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS