The passage of two US warships through the Taiwan Strait is a provocation, said Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei. This is stated on Saturday, August 28, in a message on the website of the Chinese military department.
According to him, the United States has repeatedly committed such provocations of a "very bad nature". This indicates that Washington remains the most important destroyer of peace in the Taiwan Strait, creating high security risks, said Kefei.
"We express a strong protest in this regard and strongly condemn such actions," the representative of the Chinese Defense Ministry added.
"We demand that the American side clearly understand the situation and stop provocations," he continued. "The Chinese armed forces maintain combat readiness and are capable of defending state sovereignty and territorial integrity at any time," the representative of the ministry stressed.
Beijing also demanded that the United States recognize Taiwan as part of China and observe the principle of unity of the country.
"Taiwan is an integral part of China, and the Taiwan issue is an internal matter of China, and foreign interference is unacceptable," the diplomat added.
On August 27, the Navy destroyer "Kidd" and the US Coast Guard cutter "Munro"passed through the waters of the Taiwan Strait. According to the US Navy, the passage was made in international waters.
At the end of 2020, the People's Liberation Army of China expressed a strong protest in connection with the passage of American ships through the Taiwan Strait and promised to protect the national sovereignty of the country. Then two US Navy destroyers USS Curtis Wilbur and USS John S. McCain with guided missile weapons passed through the Taiwan Strait separating the island from mainland China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly called the Taiwan issue the most sensitive in the bilateral relations between Washington and Beijing.
Official relations between the Government of the People's Republic of China and its island province were interrupted in 1949, when the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, who lost the civil war with the Communist Party of China, moved to Taiwan. Contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s.
