First US Navy Ships Sail Through Taiwan Strait Since Trump Took Office – OpEd

Two U.S. Navy ships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait this week in the first such mission since President Donald Trump took office last month, drawing an angry reaction from China, which said the mission increased security risks, the Reuters news agency reported.

The U.S. Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.

The U.S. Navy said the vessels were the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and Pathfinder-class survey ship, USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit Feb. 10-12, it said.

“The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state’s territorial seas,” the Reuters reported quoting U.S. Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command as saying. 

“Within this corridor all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms.”

China’s military said that Chinese forces had been dispatched to keep watch.

“The U.S. action sends the wrong signals and increases security risks,” the Reuters reported quoting Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as saying in a statement.

China considers Taiwan its most important diplomatic issue and it is regularly a stumbling block in Sino-U.S. relations.

The U.S. Navy confirmed on Feb. 11 two of its ships carried out a Taiwan Strait transit, calling it routine despite an angry reaction from Beijing.

Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said on Feb. 13 the scale of China’s military exercises has become so large that they could be used as a “fig leaf” to conceal an attack on Taiwan, the Taiwan News newspaper reported.

The Financial Times newspaper reported that Paparo made the remarks at the Honolulu Defense Forum in Hawaii. He also warned of the growing collaboration between China, Russia, and North Korea, describing it as an “emerging axis of autocracy” and “a triangle of troublemakers.”

Paparo said the People’s Liberation Army  has substantially stepped up its maneuvers around Taiwan in recent years. This makes it increasingly harder to distinguish between major military exercises and real preparations for an assault. 

“We’re very close to that (point) where on a daily basis the fig leaf of an exercise could very well hide operational warning,” the Taiwan News reported quoting Paparo as saying. 

Paparo said the U.S. has observed China, Russia, and North Korea’s joint activities, including bomber patrols that impinge on the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ. This included the sharing of anti-satellite capabilities and advanced submarine technologies, extending “from the seabed to the heavens.”

Considering China’s escalating military activities, Paparo stressed the need for the Pentagon to more rapidly seal holes in U.S. defenses. This could include increasing the number of deployable weapons in the Indo-Pacific.

According to the Financial Times, U.S. defense officials are concerned that if war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. may not have enough weapons to respond, Paparo said, 

“Our magazines run low. Our maintenance backlogs grow longer each month,” the Financial Times reported quoting Paparo as saying.

He acknowledged that U.S. adversaries are aware of these issues and are taking steps to exploit them. 

In a significant development, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said recently that his government would aim to increase defense spending to 3 percent of Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) this year, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump again threatened tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors,, the Focus Taiwan CAN English News newspaper reported.

At a news conference in Taipei following his first high-level national security meeting of the year, Lai said the government would propose a special budget plan this year to increase the country’s defense spending to over 3 percent of GDP.

“Taiwan must firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, strengthen its resolve for self-defense and bolster defense capabilities,” the Focus Taiwan reported quoting Lai as saying.

The president also vowed to double down efforts on defense reforms and enhance civil protections in the face of growing threats from authoritarian regimes.

Lai’s plans to increase defense spending — which, if successful, would likely see Taipei purchasing more defense articles from Washington — reflected Taipei’s broader efforts to reduce the trade deficit with the United States.

According to Lai, the U.S. has approved US$26.26 billion worth of arms sales to Taiwan over the past eight years, with $18.76 billion taking place during Trump’s first term from 2017 to 2021.

Lai added that Taiwan would accelerate efforts to strengthen its national defense capabilities, building on years of close collaboration between Taipei and Washington.

His remarks came just hours after Trump, speaking with reporters in Washington after signing a presidential memorandum paving the way for tariffs on foreign chip exports, reiterated his accusation that Taiwan “took our [the U.S.’] chip business away.”

Trump argued that the pledged economic sanctions, which could take effect as early as April, would ensure “fair” and “reciprocal” trade while reducing the U.S. trade deficit in its dealings with other countries over the years.

Taiwan has been in the top 10 list of countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit.

The plans to increase defense spending followed Trump’s comments during his presidential campaign trail that Taiwan should increase its defense budgets significantly and even pay the U.S. for protection against China.

Over the past eight years under former President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s defense budgets were increased incrementally from NT$365.8 billion ($11.16 billion) in 2016 to NT$606.8 billion in 2024.

Nevertheless, they still fell short of the 3 percent of GDP pledged by Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), of which Lai is currently the chair.

However, it remains to be seen whether the government’s pledged defense hike, which will require legislative approval, will materialize.

For the fiscal year 2025, the Cabinet had previously earmarked NT$647 billion for national defense, accounting for 2.45 percent of Taiwan’s GDP.