TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A U.S. destroyer steamed through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday (April 16), while 18 Chinese warplanes and four warships were detected around Taiwan from Sunday to Monday (April 16-17).
The U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet on Sunday said the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) had "conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit" through "waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law." The press release said the warship had navigated through a "corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state."
The Seventh Fleet said the warship's passage "demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific." The statement added the "United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."
This marks the first passage of a U.S. warship through the Taiwan Strait since Jan. 5, when the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) passed through.
Deck of USS Milius on Sunday. (U.S. Navy photo)
The MND said that 18 People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) military aircraft and four People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels had been tracked around Taiwan. Of the aircraft, four had entered the southwest and southeast sectors of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
Aircraft tracked in the ADIZ included one TB-001 reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed the "Twin-Tailed Scorpion," two Harbin Z-9 anti-submarine warfare helicopters, and one Shenyang J-11 fighter jet. The Z-9 helicopters were detected in the southwest corner of the ADIZ, while the UAV and J-11 fighter were tracked just off the southwest edge of the median line and inside the ADIZ.
Also on Sunday, debris from China's Long March 4B rocket was detected falling into a no-fly zone imposed by Beijing north of Taiwan in the ADIZ, according to the MND. The debris was generated by the launch of a Fengyun-3G weather satellite from Jiuquan, Gansu Province.
Map shows paths of PLAAF aircraft detected in ADIZ. (MND image)
