A U.S. coast guard ship transited the Taiwan Strait after Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned from his two-day trip to Beijing, a move the Chinese coast guard claimed has sparked “public speculation.”
The legend-class coast guard cutter Stratton conducted “a routine Taiwan Strait transit on June 20” to demonstrate the United States’s commitment to “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement.
“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,” it stated. “The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.”…