A United States warship sailed through international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Thursday to show Washington’s “commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the 7th Fleet under the U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) conducted a “routine” transit of the Taiwan Strait “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” according to the statement.

“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” it added.

The latest transit came less than two weeks after China sent 71 Chinese military aircraft and seven vessels to areas near Taiwan over a 24-hour span from Dec. 25-26, with 47 of the aircraft either crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entering Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone.

“Chung-Hoon’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows,” the 7th Fleet statement read.

U.S. warships have been making routine passages through the waterway separating Taiwan and China over the past three years.

Transits by U.S. military vessels through the Taiwan Strait had become almost a monthly occurrence toward the end of the Donald Trump administration and the beginning of the Joe Biden administration amid tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

But either there have been fewer transits or the U.S. have revealed fewer of them in recent months.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel