Following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the autonomous island earlier this month, two US Navy warships are making their first passage through the Taiwan Strait since China conducted the largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan.
The USS Antietam and the USS Chancellorsville, two guided-missile cruisers of the Ticonderoga class, made the "routine" transit on Sunday "through waters where high seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in line with international law," according to a statement from the US 7th Fleet.
These training sessions are usually completed in eight to twelve hours, and the Chinese military keeps a careful eye on them.
“These (U.S.) ships transited through a corridor in the strait beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” the US Navy said.
There has been increased friction between Washington and Beijing ever since Pelosi visited Taiwan in early August.
An infuriated China reacted to the visit by staging days of air and sea drills around the island it claims as part of its territory.
The US Navy further said that the transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The US has no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan but maintains extensive informal ties through the unofficial American Institute in Taiwan.
Washington also supports the island’s right to decide its future and provides considerable political and military support to Taipei.
The US and Western allies have stepped up “freedom of navigation” crossings by naval vessels of both the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to reinforce the idea that those seas are international waterways, irking Beijing.