A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane flew over the Taiwan Strait on Friday in a demonstration of “the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” just days after 29 fighter jets Chinese warlords have entered the self-declared territory of Taiwan, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.
“A US Navy P-8A Poseidon transited through the Taiwan Strait in international airspace on June 24. The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows, including within the Taiwan Strait. The United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations. The aircraft’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement read.
On Tuesday, the Chinese Defense Ministry said the 29 planes of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force were a mix of fighter jets, warning and control aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft, electronic intelligence aircraft. and aerial refueling aircraft.
That was the third-highest daily number of Chinese jets entering Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ) since the start of the year and comes less than a month after China sent 30 warplanes on a similar mission.
The Taiwan issue has been at the forefront of US-China relations in recent months.
Tensions between Washington, which is committed to supporting the island’s self-defence, and Beijing over Taiwan were open earlier this month when their respective defense chiefs met at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense conference in Singapore.
Taiwan and mainland China have been ruled separately since the defeated nationalists retreated to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago.
But China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees the self-governing island as part of its territory – despite never having controlled it.
Beijing has not ruled out the possibility of military force to seize Taiwan and has maintained pressure on the democratic island in recent years with frequent flights of warplanes to the island’s ADIZ.
An ADIZ is unilaterally imposed and distinct from sovereign airspace, which is defined by international law as the 12 nautical mile extension of a territory’s coast.
The US Federal Aviation Administration defines it as “a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interests of the national security of the country”.
In a speech in Singapore, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe accused the United States of being a “bully” in the region and promised that the PLA would “fight to the end” to prevent Taiwan independence.
After the Shangri-La conference, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed earlier statements that the Taiwan Strait “is not international waters.”
“The waters of the Taiwan Strait extend from the coasts on both sides of the Strait to the central line of the Strait, and are China’s internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone in that order,” the spokesperson said. from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin. at a June 13 briefing, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and China’s domestic law.
Reiterating Beijing’s stance on Wednesday, an editorial in the Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times claimed that the entire Taiwan Strait – the 180-kilometer-wide body of water between Taiwan and mainland China – is not international waters, but completely under the jurisdiction of Beijing.
The actions of US and foreign warships that regularly pass through the strait constitute provocations that violate Chinese sovereignty and are not innocent passage, a recognized international right, the Global Times said.
The US Navy sees things differently, regularly sending warships across the strait, including on May 10, when the guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal made a transit.
As with airspace, international law stipulates that a country’s territorial waters extend within 12 nautical miles of its coastline.
Source: CNN Brasil
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