The U.S. military said it sent two Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, a move likely to anger Beijing at a time of tense relations between the world’s two biggest economies. The voyage will be viewed by self-ruled Taiwan as a sign of support from the Trump administration amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.
The transit was carried out by the destroyer Preble and the Navy oil tanker Walter S. Diehl, a U.S. military spokesman told Reuters.
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, said in a statement.
JUST IN: Two U.S. navy ships carried out a transit through the Taiwan Strait – U.S. military spokesman pic.twitter.com/Jy52ygROcG
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 23, 2019
Imagine the outrage if his last name was Trump and not Biden???
NYT Confirms Hunter Biden Bank of China Deal, Leaves Out Key Details https://t.co/lsD87THgtA via @BreitbartNews
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 22, 2019
Hunter Biden advised a Romanian real estate magnate who was convicted and sentenced to prison over a corrupt land deal at a time that his father, Joe Biden, and his father’s allies were pushing Romania to clamp-down on corruption https://t.co/PKNPlRTQb6
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 22, 2019
.@DonaldJTrumpJr tears into Biden’s incoherent trade stance: “China has been stealing the American dream from all of you, from your kids, from your grandkids for decades, and this clown doesn’t think it’s a problem?” https://t.co/lM5clucOcC
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 21, 2019
Ban against Chinese companies is not an effort to inflame a trade dispute. It is an effort to address legitimate concerns about human rights abuses & our national security.
Yes it will inflame tensions with #China but that is not why we are doing ithttps://t.co/ZkTHZNeEio
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) May 22, 2019
Last month the passage of a French frigate through the strait angered China https://t.co/pGvX38RTm6
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 16, 2019
Reuters contributed to this report.
Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers’ newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.