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The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) had a US warship under
surveillance when it made a provocative transit in the Taiwan Straits on
Wednesday, as the PLA was conducting live-fire exercises near the
region. The US' high profile move was meant to lend support to Taiwan
secessionist forces, but its attempt to interfere in China's internal
affairs and obstruct China's reunification will be futile, Chinese
mainland experts said on Thursday.
The PLA Eastern Theater
Command organized naval and air forces, and tracked and monitored the
USS Barry destroyer when the US warship sailed through the Taiwan
Straits on Wednesday, the command announced on Thursday.
The US
has been frequently sending the wrong signals to Taiwan secessionist
forces, seriously damaging peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits,
Senior Colonel Zhang Chunhui, spokesperson of the PLA Eastern Theater
Command, said in a statement.
"We sternly urge the US to stop
making provocative statements and moves. The command forces are always
on high alert and will resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and
territorial integrity, as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan
Straits," the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the US
Seventh Fleet said in a statement that the USS Barry's Taiwan Straits
transit was "routine," and "demonstrates the US commitment to a free and
open Indo-Pacific," AFP reported on Thursday.
The US is aiming
to stir up tensions in the Taiwan Straits, and to lend support to Taiwan
secessionist forces, as the warship transit would worsen the current
situation in the region, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the
PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Global Times on
Thursday.
However, the US will not reach its goal of interfering
in China's internal affairs and obstructing China's reunification, as
the Chinese people and military have the capability and determination to
turn reunification into reality, the expert said.
The US
warship's Taiwan Straits transit came after foreign media reported on
Tuesday and Wednesday that the US is moving forward with the latest
batch of arms sales to the island of Taiwan, which experts said features
attack weapons.
The Trump administration could be making
provocative military moves to win more support in the re-election
campaign, analysts said.
According to tracking data released by
the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), a
Beijing-based think tank, the US also sent an EP-3E spy plane to the
south of the Taiwan Straits from the night of Tuesday to the morning of
Wednesday. And the US warship and warplane activities coincided with PLA
live-fire drills from Tuesday to Saturday off the coast of Gulei
Peninsula, Zhangzhou, East China's Fujian Province near Kinmen in
Taiwan.
The EP-3E is equipped with advanced electronic
intelligence interception systems that can monitor and track radar and
communications signals over a wide area, and gather and analyze
information, including radio frequencies used in missile guidance,
leading Chinese mainland military observers to say its close-up
reconnaissance in the Taiwan Straits was aimed at gathering PLA drill
intelligence, and pave a path for the USS Barry destroyer.
The US
destroyer's Taiwan Straits transit was not likely a close-up
reconnaissance in technical terms, but an attempt to boost the morale of
Taiwan secessionists, Zhang Junshe said.
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