The U.S. Navy released a video Monday morning appearing to show U.S. and Chinese warships sailing within hundreds of yards of one another in the Taiwan Strait, risking a collision and escalation of tensions between China, Taiwan, and the United States.
⚡️The US accused China of "unsafe" destroyer maneuver near the American ship. The Chinese ship passed within 150 yards of the American. pic.twitter.com/napepfQBM6
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) June 4, 2023
A statement from the Navy’s U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that China’s destroyer-style ship PRC LY 132 buzzed the American Navy’s destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and alleged the Chinese Navy violated maritime rules.
“During the transit, PLA(N) LUYANG III DDG 132 (PRC LY 132) executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of Chung-Hoon. The PRC LY 132 overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 kts to avoid a collision.
“The PRC LY 132 crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time starboard to port at 2,000 yards and remained off Chung-Hoon’s port bow. The LY 132’s closest point of approach was 150 yards and its actions violated the maritime ‘Rules of the Road’ of safe passage in international waters.”
Chinese officials disagreed, with PRC Major General Li Shangfu telling a security summit forum in Singapore that U.S. “freedom of navigation patrols” are provocations against China and an attempt by the U.S. to assert maritime hegemony, declaring, “we must prevent attempts that try to use those freedom of navigation, that innocent passage, to exercise hegemony of navigation.”
Li hedged his rhetoric by stating that a U.S.-Chinese war would be an “unbearable disaster.”
While the U.S. claims that the Taiwan Strait is part of international waters and subject to international maritime law, China claims it is part of their “exclusive economic zone.”
Tensions between China and the U.S. have recently ratcheted up around Taiwan. U.S. policy officially requires “strategic ambiguity,” but President Biden has repeatedly said the U.S. military would be sent to defend Taiwan if there was an attempt by the Chinese military to invade or blockade the island.
Taiwan has been separated from mainland China since the conclusion of the communist Chinese revolution in 1949. Today, Taiwan is considered strategically vital due to its near monopoly on producing economically vital semiconductor chips and the Taiwan Strait’s robust container shipping corridor.
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