Two American guided missile destroyers passed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday. Their passage was described as a “routine transit through international waters” by the U.S. Navy, but Chinese media denounced it as a “provocation” and part of America’s “psychological game” with China over the fate of Taiwan.
“Two U.S. Navy ships conducted a routine transit through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait on July 7-8. U.S. Navy ships transit between the South China Sea and East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait and have done so for many years,” a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet said on Saturday.
The two ships were identified as the guided-missile destroyers USS Mustin and USS Benfold, both based out of Japan. They were the first U.S. Navy warships to pass through the strait since the destroyer USS John S. McCain in July 2017.
China’s state-run Global Times asserted on Saturday that Chinese forces “must have monitored the situation and have it under control.”
“The U.S. is aggravating Taiwan Strait tensions,” the Global Times declared on Twitter, an argument expanded upon in a Sunday editorial:
Since a vast stretch of the Taiwan Straits is considered an international waterway, Beijing cannot raise the issue if Washington’s passage is uneventful.
However, in most cases, the U.S. is sending political signals by sending warships through the Taiwan Straits.
Although this time Washington has remained relatively low key, the Taiwan administration has continued to issue statements.
Apparently, the Democratic Progressive Party has been emboldened by Washington’s gestures. International media has linked the passage with Sino-U.S. tensions aggravated by the ongoing trade war, while observers are concerned whether these tensions would spread to other fields.
The rest of the Global Times article was filled with huffing and puffing that Washington cannot intimidate Beijing out of attacking Taiwan with displays of military force, which is somewhat amusing from the paper that insists Taiwan and America are the parties engaged in provocative behavior. There were even threats about how U.S. Navy ships could find themselves “sandwiched” between Chinese naval and air power in the Taiwan Strait, a scenario that few Chinese pilots or naval commanders are eager to test in practice.
The objective of Chinese media is not wargaming or intimidating the U.S. out of sailing through international waters, a transit even the furious Global Times editorialists were forced to concede America has every right to make. It is food for thought when judging China’s promises that its militarization of the South China Sea will in no way impede the trillion dollars in annual shipping that passes through the region, however.
The objective is to support China’s campaign of diplomatic isolation against Taiwan, which includes frequent and increasingly shrill reminders that America cannot save the Taiwanese from China’s wrath if they pursue an independent course. China hopefully will not ever get around to actually invading or blockading the island. They are counting on inertia and the glum forecast for independence among Taiwanese youth to maintain the status quo for now, and gradually nudge the island back under Beijing’s control as China’s regional power swells. Contrary to the Global Times headline, it is Beijing that is playing a psychological game against Taipei.