The U.S. Navy has confirmed that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit April 16 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.
The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State. Milius’ 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.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory, even though the island has been self-governing since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces fled there when they were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong’s Communists. China has vowed to bring Taiwan under its control by any means necessary, including a military takeover.
China has carried out numerous air and naval military exercises near Taiwan in recent years to intimidate the island from formally declaring independence. It has also put diplomatic pressure on countries to get them to cut formal ties with Taiwan.