The Chinese military announced that it tailed a US warship as it passed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Saturday, Reuters reported.
It denounced such missions as sending “flirtatious glances” to supporters of Taiwan independence.
The US Navy said the guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin had conducted “a routine Taiwan Strait transit (on) Dec. 19 in accordance with international law”.
“The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it added.
China’s military, in a statement released by its Eastern Theatre Command, said its air and naval forces “tailed and monitored” the vessel throughout.
Such missions “deliberately raise the temperature of the Taiwan issue, as they fear calm in the Taiwan Strait, and send flirtatious glances to Taiwan independence forces, seriously jeopardizing peace and stability in the strait”, it said.
The United States is engaging in a show of force and trying to use Taiwan as a pawn for its own selfish strategic purposes, the statement added.
MNA/PR
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