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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 China voices ‘concern’ as US warships go through Strait
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying comments on the passage of US warships through the Taiwan Strait at a news conference in Beijing yesterday. Photo: CNA
/ AFP, BEIJING
China yesterday said that it has expressed concern to the US over what it considered an affront to its sovereignty after two US warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
The move adds to increasingly fraught relations between the two countries, which have clashed over a number of issues, including trade, Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang area.
Monday was the second time in the space of three months that US warships had conducted so-called “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Taiwan Strait, a 180km wide stretch of water separating Taiwan and China.
Beijing “expressed its concern to the US side” as “the Taiwan issue concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying （華春瑩） told a regular news briefing.
Hua said Beijing urged Washington to “scrupulously abide by the ‘one China’ principle” and “carefully handle Taiwan-related issues in an appropriate manner.”
China still sees Taiwan as part of its territory to be unified, despite the two sides being ruled separately since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told reporters that the USS Curtis Wilbur and USS Antietam conducted a routine transit to demonstrate the US’ commitment “to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Multiple Chinese warships shadowed the two US vessels during their transit through the Strait, following at a safe distance, US defense officials said.
Beijing has conducted a series of military maneuvers, including a live-fire exercise in the Strait in April, declaring its willingness to confront Taiwan’s “independence forces.”
Washington remains Taipei’s most powerful unofficial ally and its main supplier of military arms and parts, despite switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.
The Ministry of National Defense said in a statement that the military had been “closely monitoring the US warships during their passage.”
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
