US warships sail through the Taiwan Strait after Pelosi visit

The USS Kidd (DDG 100) transits the Taiwan Strait Saturday. Pic/AFP

The US Navy's two warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, in the first such transit publicised since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier in August, at a time when tensions have kept the waterway particularly busy.

The USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville are conducting a routine transit, the US 7th Fleet said. The cruisers "transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state", the statement said. China has sent many warships sailing in the Taiwan Strait and waters surrounding Taiwan since Pelosi's visit, as well as sending warplanes and firing long-range missiles.

China said it tracked the movement of the ships. "Troops of the (Eastern) Theater Command are on high alert and ready to foil any provocation at any time," said senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson for the People Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command. The US regularly sends its ships through the Taiwan Strait as part of what it calls freedom of navigation manoeuvres.

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