US Warship Completes Transit of Taiwan Strait

The USS Ralph Johnson departs from base in San Diego. (Flickr)

The USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) transited the Taiwan Strait on February 26. Based out of Yokosuka, Japan, the guided-missile destroyer is one of the U.S. Navy’s many ships sailing in East Asian waters since 2021, according to Taipei Times. However, the USS Ralph Johnson is the first to cross the controversial Taiwan Strait since January 22, amidst President Joe Biden’s efforts to improve East and Southeast Asian allies’ perception of American military strength.

South China Sea Probing Initiative, a Beijing-based think tank, released an image on Twitter of the USS Ralph Johnson receiving intelligence support from a USN EP-3E, a U.S. Navy-operated Lockheed reconnaissance aircraft. The USN EP-3E normally operates around the southern tip of Taiwan.

Senior Colonel Shi Yi of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command argued the passage was provocative and encouraging to Taiwanese separatists. He further said, “Such frequent provocations by the U.S. fully demonstrate that the U.S. is a destroyer of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and a security risk creator across the Taiwan Strait.” While such American naval movements are in accordance with UNCLOS international maritime law, the Chinese government continues to denounce them.

On the other side of the Strait, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense monitored the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and called its northerly transit “normal” after detecting no irregularities (Taipei Times). 

The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet released a statement of its own, saying, “The ship’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.” 

As Biden follows Trump’s stance on China, the USS Ralph Johnson transit is one of many efforts on his part to improve security relations with its regional allies. A November 2018 RAND report recommended that the U.S. military strengthen its ties with Indo-Pacific allies and deter Chinese hegemony by conducting more shared military operations in the region. American statements indicate that the USS Ralph Johnson will certainly not be the last warship to transit the Taiwan Strait this year.

Some experts believe that the extra precaution the American Navy is taking regarding Taiwan, particularly in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is unnecessary. “China’s increased military assertiveness [has] only served to strengthen the conviction in Washington that the island is a staunch democratic partner worthy of U.S. support as it tries to defend tiny Taiwan against efforts by Beijing to coerce the island into unwanted unification with China,” East Asia specialists Andrew Scobell and Lucy Stevenson-Yang said (USIP).

Taipei’s robust security ties to Washington as well as China’s unwillingness to provoke the West differentiate the situation in the Taiwan Strait with the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory. Moreover, the lack of a strong Chinese response to the warship transit calls into question an alarmist phrase circulating the island nation: “Ukraine Today, Taiwan Tomorrow?”