China says it monitored, warned US destroyer in Taiwan Strait

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's military said it had monitored and warned a U.S. destroyer as it sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the latest such traversing of the sensitive waterway to upset Beijing.

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

The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said in a statement that the destroyer USS Ralph Johnson made a "routine" transit of the strait in accordance with international law.

China's military described the sailing as "public hype", adding it had sent naval and air forces to monitor and warn the U.S. ship and "deal with it in accordance with the law and regulations".

"Troops in the theatre remain on high alert at all times and will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability," the Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army said.

Taiwan's defence ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction through the strait and that Taiwanese forces had monitored the situation but observed nothing unusual.

U.S. military ships and aircraft transit the narrow strait about once a month.

Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty claims and says only the island's people can decide their future.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Kim Coghill, Himani Sarkar and Bernadette Baum)

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