Why is Beijing getting unnerved by US ships passing through the Taiwan Strait? While the US-China Trade War continues to escalate, the US has its destroyers passing via the contentious Taiwan Strait. The US Navy officials on have confirmed that destroyer ships, USS Mustin and USS Benfold have passed the Taiwan Strait. Will this further escalate the US-China Tensions?
As reported by PressTV, Captain Charlie Brown, the Pacific Fleet’s Spokesperson termed the passing of the USS Mustin and USS Benfold as a ‘routine transit.’ But is this a justification China would buy especially given the current scenario of tensions between the US and China. The spokesperson of the Pacific Fleet said that the US Navy ships sail through the Taiwan Strait from the South China Sea to the East China Sea on a routine basis and continue to do so for years.
China and the US are already at loggerheads of what is being seen as the biggest trade war ever. Besides the trade war, there are also tensions between the two nations over the South China Sea. In such a scenario a rare passage of US warships through the Taiwan Strait does not seem like ordinary or unalarming. China is yet to react to the passage of USS Mustin and USS Benfold through the Taiwan Strait.
It was only last week that the US Defence Secretary, Jim Mattis was in Beijing for a visit. He was the first defence head from Pentagon to have visited Beijing since 2014. His visit was followed by the visit of US warships in the South China Sea.
China under the ‘One-China Policy’ claims to own Taiwan and almost all nations recognise the same. China and Taiwan separated in 1949 after a civil war. Since then China has never used force on Taiwan to bring it under its control but continues to call it a part of itself.
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