Despite growing tensions with China over Taiwan, the United States will use ships and planes to cross and fly across the Taiwan Strait in the “coming weeks”, according to a senior US government official. The United States also wants to expand its trade relations with Taiwan, as US coordinator for the Asia-Pacific region Kurt Campbell announced in Washington on Friday.
“Consistent with our long-term commitment to freedom of navigation,” US forces “would continue to fly, navigate the seas and operate where international law allows,” Campbell said. This also includes “normal overflights and transits of ships across the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.” Campbell did not provide details on the exact timing or extent of planned US troop movements across the straits between Taiwan and mainland China.
The US government official also announced that a new trade plan for Taiwan and information on planned trade talks with Taipei will be released in the coming days. The United States would “further deepen” its relations with Taiwan, including strengthening economic cooperation.
Campbell described the one-day maneuvers of historically unprecedented proportions that China last carried out after top US politician Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan as an “overreaction”. Beijing continues to show “provocative, destabilizing and unprecedented” behavior.
The government in Taipei welcomed the US official’s announcements. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry thanked Washington for its “determined support” and “concrete actions to maintain cross-strait security and regional peace.”
US and allied warships have been conducting regular drills in the strait for years, often prompting angry reactions from Beijing. China considers Taiwan and the surrounding waters to be its sovereign territory. The United States and many other countries, on the other hand, consider the route to be international waters open to all.
After the Communists’ victory in the Chinese Civil War, there was a split between China and Taiwan in 1949, to which the defeated Nationalist government had fled. To this day, Beijing regards the island as a breakaway territory that wants to reunite with the mainland – if necessary using military force. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has stoked fears that Beijing may use a similar approach in its negotiations with Taiwan.