China accused the United Kingdom of "trouble‑making and provocation" after a British and an American warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Friday, while satellite imagery showed Beijing's newest aircraft carrier operating in the same waters.
HMS Richmond, accompanied by the USS Higgins, passed between Taiwan and mainland China, an action London and Washington said was a routine transit through international waters. A spokesman for the U.S. Indo‑Pacific Command told Newsweek that "the two ships were simply conducting a routine Taiwan Strait transit where freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law."
Beijing's military public affairs office said the sailing undermined regional peace and amounted to "harassment and provocation," according to Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a Chinese military spokesman. Chinese naval and air forces shadowed the two allied ships during the transit, the statement said. The defence ministries in London and Washington have both maintained that the ships stayed in international waters.
Also on Friday, satellite images circulated by open‑source analysts showed the aircraft carrier Fujian operating in waters off China's east coast. The vessel, still undergoing sea trials and not yet formally commissioned, displaces roughly 80,000 tonnes and measures about 316 metres in length. It features a full‑length flight deck equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system that is intended to launch fixed‑wing jets.
Chinese state media and officials have framed the Fujian and other recent additions to the People's Liberation Army Navy as part of Beijing's broader effort to modernize its armed forces. U.S. officials and independent analysts have pointed to the fleet expansion as evidence of China's growing maritime capabilities.
Taiwan's government welcomed the transit. In a statement, Taipei's foreign ministry said it "welcomes and affirms the British side once again taking concrete actions to defend the freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait, demonstrating its firm position that the Taiwan Strait is international waters." Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and has long vowed to bring the island under mainland control, while Taiwan maintains its own government and armed forces.
Tensions around the narrow waterway have risen in recent years as China has expanded military activity near the island. In June, a transit by the Royal Navy patrol ship HMS Spey prompted a large Chinese response that Taipei described as a show of force, with Taiwanese officials reporting dozens of Chinese military aircraft operating in the area and more than 60 crossing the informal median line that has historically separated the two sides' patrols.
Analysts note the strategic importance of the Taiwan Strait. The island of Taiwan is a major manufacturing and technology hub and sits on the first island chain — a series of territories running from Japan to the Philippines that U.S. strategists regard as a barrier to maritime expansion. The strait also links shipping routes between East Asia and the Indian Ocean, a choke point Beijing is careful to defend in the event of broader confrontation.
U.S. officials have in recent years warned publicly that Beijing is accelerating preparations that could enable military action against Taiwan as early as the latter part of the decade. China has not acknowledged plans to invade Taiwan; its official position continues to emphasise eventual reunification and opposition to what it terms separatism.
The passage by HMS Richmond and USS Higgins, and the concurrent presence of the Fujian, underscore the intersecting naval operations and growing military activity in the region. Both Washington and London framed the transit as consistent with international law governing freedom of navigation, while Beijing characterised it as a destabilising provocation.
Diplomatic and military officials in the region continue to monitor movements by all sides. The transit adds to a pattern of increasingly frequent ship and aircraft operations in the Taiwan Strait that governments and analysts say will remain a focal point of U.S.‑China and cross‑strait tensions in the near term.