China on Friday accused Britain and the United States of "harassment and provocation" after a Royal Navy destroyer and a U.S. destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait while Chinese naval forces shadowed them and satellite imagery showed Beijing’s newest aircraft carrier operating in the same area.
HMS Richmond and USS Higgins transited the narrow waterway that separates Taiwan from mainland China, a route that the two allies said is international waters and where freedoms of navigation apply. Beijing’s military spokesman, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, condemned the passage as "trouble-making and provocation," and Chinese naval and air units tracked the allied ships during the operation.
A U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokesperson 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." A separate spokesperson for the British and American pairing also described the movement as consistent with operations in international waters.
Satellite images released the same day showed the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s newest carrier, Fujian, operating in the region. The vessel, which has not yet been commissioned and is undergoing sea trials, displaces around 80,000 tonnes and measures about 316 metres (1,036 feet) in length. It features a full-length flight deck and an advanced catapult-launch system, elements Beijing has highlighted as central to President Xi Jinping’s plans to modernize the PLA Navy.
Taiwan’s government publicly welcomed the Royal Navy transit. "The foreign ministry 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," the ministry said in a statement.
The Taiwan Strait — a strategically vital corridor connecting the East China Sea and the South China Sea — is the shortest shipping route between East Asia and the Middle East and is heavily used by global trade. Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing says should be part of China, lies about 80 miles off the Chinese coast and has an area of roughly 36,000 square kilometers. The island is a major manufacturing and technology hub and sits along what analysts call the "first island chain," a series of territories from Japan to the Philippines that form a strategic barrier in the western Pacific.
Tensions over the strait have risen in recent years as Beijing has expanded and modernized its naval and air forces. U.S. officials have warned of an increasing military capability that could enable an invasion in the coming years, forecasts that Beijing rejects. Analysts point to a rapid build-up of maritime assets and the construction of new bases along China’s eastern seaboard.
The most recent transit follows earlier encounters. In June, a Royal Navy patrol ship, HMS Spey, sailed through the Taiwan Strait and Beijing described that action as "troublemaking." Taiwan reported that the passage prompted a show of force by China, with dozens of warplanes dispatched toward the island and many crossing the median line that has unofficially divided the strait.
Western warships routinely transit the Taiwan Strait citing international law and freedom of navigation. Beijing, asserting that Taiwan is part of its territory, has frequently criticized those transits and deployed military assets to shadow or monitor foreign ships and aircraft operating in the area.
The presence of the Fujian during the transit adds a new dimension to the encounters. The carrier’s catapult system is designed to launch heavier, longer-range aircraft than China’s earlier carriers could operate, a capability that Beijing argues is needed to protect a wider maritime domain. The vessel remains in sea trials and has not been formally commissioned into the PLA Navy.
Friday’s events underscore the continuing contest over rights of passage and military presence in a region central to global trade and to the strategic calculations of Beijing, Taipei, Washington and allied partners. Governments on all sides have framed recent naval activity in legal and security terms, stressing navigational freedoms on one hand and territorial integrity on the other.