US warships transit Taiwan Strait, first since Pelosi visitThe AI Arleigh-burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Kidd (DDG 100) transits the Taiwan Strait during a routine transit on Saturday, the first such transit since China staged unprecedented military drills around the island (Photo by US NAVY / AFP)WASHINGTON: Two US Navy warships sailed through international waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, the first such operation since a visit to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged China which regards the island as its territory. Pelosi's Taiwan trip in early August infuriated China which saw it as a US attempt to interfere in its internal affairs. "These (US) ships transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state," the US Navy said. The narrow Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists, who established the People's Republic of China. Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was followed around a week later by a group of five other US lawmakers, with China's military responding by carrying out more exercises near the island.
