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The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said Saturday’s “dangerous” exercise brought a Chinese vessel to within 150 yards of U.S. and Canadian vessels during a routine freedom of navigation exercise. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that China “resolutely opposes relevant countries causing trouble” in the Taiwan Strait, with the United States causing trouble first.
China claims Taiwan, an autonomous democracy with a population of 23 million, as its territory and claims the Taiwan Strait as part of its economic zone. The United States said the strait is part of the high seas and said the exercise with HMCS Montreal “demonstrates the joint commitment of the United States and Canada to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The near-miss in the Taiwan Strait comes two weeks after what U.S. officials called an “unnecessarily aggressive” encounter between Chinese and U.S. aircraft in the South China Sea. Chinese fighter jets flew just dozens of feet in front of Air Force RC-135 surveillance planes, throwing the U.S. aircraft into turbulence.
The clashes hit recent efforts to defuse diplomatic tensions between the United States and China after U.S. forces shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon in February. Beijing has signaled it wants to move on from the incident, and President Biden spoke last month of a possible “thaw” in U.S.-China relations.
U.S. and Chinese defense officials publicly accused each other of fueling tensions in the Taiwan Strait at a separate event last weekend after Beijing rejected a U.S. request for closed-door talks.
On Saturday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the United States will not accept “coercion and bullying” of its allies and partners by China and warned the Chinese military against “unprofessional” interceptions by fighter jets over the South China Sea.
China’s Defense Minister Li Sangfu on Sunday accused “some countries” of “needlessly interfering in the internal affairs of others” and building “exclusive military alliances” in the Asia-Pacific region.
Before the video was released on Sunday, Li suggested that the United States and its allies intended to provoke China. “Why are all the conflicts between military aircraft and warships you mention happening near China’s airspace and waters?” he asked. “What are you doing hanging around other people’s houses?”
“In our language, they would say, ‘Take care of your people, take care of your ships, take care of your aircraft.'”
Vic Chiang contributed to this report.
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