China’s army today condemned the crossing of an American and British Taiwan warship, saying it ordered naval and air forces to monitor and warn the two ships.

The Eastern Business Theater of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has announced that US USS Higgins and British Frigate HMS Richmond have caused problems and challenged.

“The actions of the United States and Britain are sending the wrong messages and undermine peace and stability along the strait of the Taiwan,” she said in a statement.

The British Ministry of Defense said the crossbar was a routine crossing.

“Wherever the Royal Navy attempts, it makes it in full compliance with international law and rules and exercises the rights of freedom of navigation in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the British Ministry said.

The US Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, a Canadian and an Australian warship also crossed the strait.

The US Navy and, at times, ships from allied countries, including Canada, Britain and France, pass through the Strait, which they consider an international floating road, about once a month. Taiwan also considers the narrow international floating road.

China, which considers Taiwan as its own territory, says that the strategic significance of floating road is part of its territorial waters. The Taiwan government rejects Beijing’s territorial claims.

China has increased its military pressure on the island over the last five years, including organizing war gymnasiums nearby.

Earlier today, China announced that its newest aircraft carrier, Fujian, crossed Taiwan’s strait to conduct “scientific research and training missions” in the South China Sea.

“Fujian’s submission to testing and gymnasiums (…) is a normal part of the construction of an aircraft carrier and has no specific target,” Captain Lang Guoey assured a statement by the Chinese Navy.

Military movements in the Taiwan Strait are generally considered extremely sensitive. China considers its island’s province, which is pending to reunite with the mainland after the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. It exerted a lot of pressure, military, financial and diplomatic in Taiwan.

China today has two – Soviet design – aircraft carrier in service: Lianing, bought from Ukraine in 2000, and Santong, the first aircraft carrier ever to be built in the Asian giant, in service since 2019.

Santong participated in April in military high schools in the Taiwan Strait whose scenario included the “exclusion” of the island, according to the Eastern Chinese Armed Forces administration.