U.S rebuffs China By designating Taiwan Strait as an international waterway

• Warships from the United States and occasionally allies like Britain and Canada have transited the strait in recent years, infuriating Beijing.
• China’s Foreign Ministry declared on Monday that certain nations’ claims that their country “has sovereignty, sovereign rights, and authority over the Taiwan Strait” are untrue.
• “The strait is “by no means” China’s inland sea, according to Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s U.S. support for Taiwan’s claim that the strait dividing the island from China is an international waterway was another blow to Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty over the vital route.

Since the defeated Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists, who founded the People’s Republic of China, the Taiwan Strait has been a regular source of military conflict.

Warships from the United States and occasionally allies like Britain and Canada have transited the strait in recent years, infuriating Beijing.

China’s Foreign Ministry declared on Monday that certain nations’ claims that their country “has sovereignty, sovereign rights, and authority over the Taiwan Strait” are untrue.

“The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway, meaning that the Taiwan Strait is a region where high seas freedoms, including freedom of navigation and overflight, are guaranteed under international law,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Price continued, “We view this as important to the security and prosperity of the greater Indo-Pacific region. The world has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

The United States “will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting over the Taiwan Strait,” he added, reiterating American concerns about China’s “aggressive language and coercive activity regarding Taiwan.”

The strait is “by no means” China’s inland sea, according to Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang on Wednesday.

The Taiwan Strait is a marine area for unrestricted international travel, he told reporters, adding that China’s desire to engulf Taiwan has never abated or been covered up.

China considers the island as a natural extension of its sovereignty and has never renounced the use of force to annex Taiwan.

Taiwan claims that China has no right to speak for it or assert its sovereignty, that only the people of Taiwan have the power to determine their own future, and that the PRC has never had any authority over any territory on the island.

Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Humeyra Pamuk, and Michael Martina; Ben Blanchard contributed additional reporting from Taipei; Lincoln Feast handled the editing.

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