The American destroyer USS Milnius sailed yesterday Sunday taiwan strait, claimed by China, the US Navy announced, a week before large-scale Chinese military training in the same area.

The Milnius “made a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Sunday, the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement, moving into waters “where freedom of navigation and overflight apply under international law.”

The destroyer passed by “corridor in the strait outside the territorial waters” of the states of the region, is added to the laconic text. US military ‘flies, sails and operates wherever international law permits’completes the seventh fleet.

Beijing has increasingly resented the rapprochement in recent years between the governments of Taiwan and the US, which – although they do not officially have relations with the island – provide its military with heavy military support and play a role as a protectorate.

China regards Taiwan as its province, which has simply not yet succeeded in reuniting with the mainland after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It is seeking reunification, not ruling out the possibility of using force if necessary.

“Unlawful Trespass”

Last week, the USS Milnius sailed near the Spratly Islands, also claimed by Beijing, in the South China Sea. Beijing denounced the “illegal intrusion”.

Today, the Chinese military’s eastern theater command said it closely monitored the US guided-missile destroyer and accused Washington of making noise about the incident.

The Chinese Armed Forces “maintain a permanently high level of vigilance”“resolutely protecting the national sovereignty and security, peace and stability of the region”Xi Yi, a spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement.

The US warship’s passage a short distance from Taiwan comes a week after China’s large-scale military exercises around the island of 23 million people.

For three days, ships and aircraft simulated the “blockade” of Taiwan and the conduct of “precision strikes” in retaliation for a meeting in the US between President Tsai Ing-wen and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican.

Those high schools officially ended on April 10, but Chinese military ships and aircraft have continued to move around Taiwan ever since.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense reported today that it spotted four warships and 18 military aircraft near the island, four of which it said entered the island’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Taiwan’s ADIZ is not identical to the island’s airspace, it is much wider. . It includes part of Chinese airspace, as well as mainland China.

Western warships often head into the Taiwan Strait, each time prompting protests from Beijing. The US destroyer USS Chung-Hoon passed through the strait in January, followed in February by two frigates, one American and one Canadian.

Last August, China held its largest military drills in decades around Taiwan in response to a visit to Taipei by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.