China reacts as German warship traverses Taiwan Strait

Admin I Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024

 

CHINA – has said German warships passing through the Taiwan Strait, which divides China from Taiwan, pose a risk to security.

“The behaviour of the German side increases the security risk and sends the wrong signals,” said Navy Captain Li Xi of the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command on Saturday.

Chinese troops in the area of operations are always on high alert and take decisive action against threats and provocations, he added.

A German warship traversed the Taiwan Strait for the first time in more than 20 years on Friday, despite protests from Beijing.

The Baden-Württemberg frigate and the Frankfurt am Main supply vessel passed through the contested strait on their way from South Korea to the Philippines.
Both the Chinese army and Taiwanese forces said they monitored the passage.

The move caused consternation in Beijing, as China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and sees the strait as belonging to Chinese – rather than international – waters.

Taiwan is a self-governing democratic island off the south-east coast of China, which claims it as a province and which it has threatened to take by force if it makes any moves towards formal independence.

German leaders have largely dismissed Beijing’s protests over the passage, the first by a German military vessel since 2002.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a press conference in Berlin that the strait is an “international waterway,” echoing Defence Minister Boris Pistorius’s earlier comment that the route was in “international waters.”

“It’s the shortest route,” Pistorius added, and “the safest route given the weather conditions.”

When asked whether China had been informed about the ship’s passage, a Foreign Office spokesman in Berlin said: “That is neither planned nor necessary.”

Warships from other countries, such as the United States, have also passed through the strait in the past, prompting protests from Chinese leaders.