The US sent a warship to the Taiwan Strait ahead of the president’s inauguration, prompting an angry reaction from Beijing

An American warship crossed the narrow Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, less than two weeks before Taiwan’s new president took office, provoking an angry reaction from Beijing, reports News.ro.

China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan and says it has jurisdiction over the strait. Taiwan and the United States dispute this, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.

US warships and occasionally US Navy patrol aircraft pass through or across the strait about once a month.

The timing of the latest mission was extremely sensitive, given that it took place before the May 20 inauguration of Taiwan’s president-elect, Lai Ching-te, a man China says is a dangerous separatist.

The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet announced that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey conducted a “routine transit” of the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, “through waters where the freedoms of navigation and overflight apply, in compliance with international law”.

The Chinese military denounced the move as “public unrest”, adding that it had dispatched naval and air forces to monitor and warn the US ship throughout its passage, “in accordance with law and regulations”.

“Troops in the theater of operations are always on alert and will resolutely defend national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability,” the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said for its part that the US ship had sailed south through the strait and that Taiwanese forces had been monitoring the situation but had not noticed anything unusual.

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide its future.

Lai, now vice president, has repeatedly offered to talk with China, but has been turned down.

Taiwan is on alert for any Chinese military maneuvers around the island in the run-up to and after the presidential inauguration.

Over the past four years, the Chinese military has massively stepped up its activities around Taiwan, for example through warplane overflights over the strait’s median line, which once served as an unofficial buffer zone. China says it does not recognize the existence of this line.

On Thursday morning, in its daily report on Chinese military activities over the past 24 hours, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said it had detected four Chinese planes that crossed the median line, flying near Taiwan’s Penghu Islands, which are home to a major air base.