30/08/2022
Why China's response to US warships in Taiwan Strait surprised analysts
After United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in early August, the Chinese military staged some of its biggest ever military exercises around the island.
Chinese warplanes swarmed across the Taiwan Strait and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) even fired missiles over Taiwan, the democratically ruled island that the Chinese Communist Party claims as its sovereign territory despite having never controlled it.
Those Chinese military exercises set what some analysts and officials feared might be a "new normal" across the strait: A more permanent PLA presence ever closer to Taiwan.
US officials, meanwhile, vowed Washington would stay the course and Chinese intimidation tactics would be challenged.
On Sunday, the US Navy sent two guided-missile cruisers through the strait, over which Beijing claims sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction under Chinese law and its interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The US and others maintain the strait is international waters under the UN treaty.
It was the first time in at least four years the US Navy had sent two cruisers through the strait, said Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, who has been keeping a database on the transits.
"Having two instead of the usual one vessel to do this mission is certainly a 'bigger' signal of protest against not only Beijing's recent military exercises around Taiwan following the Pelosi visit, but also in response to Beijing's attempt to subvert the legal status of the waterway and the longstanding freedom of navigation rights through the area," Koh said.
That the US warships made the transit Sunday was no surprise. They have made dozens of such voyages in recent years, and US officials had said transits would continue.
What was surprising to analysts was the muted response from Beijing.
The Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command said it monitored the two ships, maintained a high alert and was "ready to thwart any provocation."
