Chinese Navy Cuts Off US Ship, Intending to Test US Bottom Line in Taiwan Strait: Military Expert

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon is observing the Chinese PLA Navy vessel Luyang III (top) while on a transit through the Taiwan Strait with the Royal Canadian Navy's HMCS Montreal on June 3, 2023. Andre T. Richard/U.S. Navy/AFP/Getty Images

A Chinese navy ship recently intercepted a U.S. Navy ship in the Taiwan Strait, escalating U.S.-China tensions over the Taiwan issue. One military expert said the move aligned with the Chinese regime’s goal to seize Taiwan and test the bottom line of U.S. defense of freedom of navigation.

On June 3, while the USS Chung-Hoon, a Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, and the Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were passing through the Taiwan Strait, China’s Suzhou navy ship cut off the USS Chung-Hoon and forced it to change course. The two ships were within 150 yards of each other at their closest point and nearly collided.

Carl Schuster, former director of operations for the U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii, told The Epoch Times on June 4 that the move was a deliberate provocation from China and created a dangerous situation.

“Anytime when ships get within 500 meters of each other, it’s a dangerous situation because it takes about 200 meters to turn a ship,” Schuster explained. He believes the operation was ordered by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Military Commission, given that the Chinese navy would not have acted without orders from the top.

This is not the first time the Chinese military has made a dangerous interception. On May 26, a Chinese J-16 fighter jet intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace in the South China Sea in an unnecessarily hazardous maneuver, cutting right in front of the reconnaissance aircraft, according to a VOA report.

In 2001, a Chinese aircraft intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, resulting in a collision that killed the Chinese crew. The Chinese detained the U.S. pilots after an emergency landing.

Freedom of Navigation

A helicopter stops on the U.S. lead ship USS Blue Ridge in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, on Aug. 5, 2014. Getty Images

The U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a statement following the June 3 incident: “Chung-Hoon and Montreal’s bilateral transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific. … Cooperation like this represents the centerpiece of our approach to a secure and prosperous region where aircraft and ships of all nations may fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”

In the 1970s, the former Soviet Union began to make excessive claims to international waters, designating high sea waters as its territorial waters. To preserve freedom of navigation, then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter ordered the U.S. Freedom of Navigation Program in 1979 to “exercise and assert its maritime rights and freedoms worldwide in a manner consistent with the balance of interests reflected in the Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

Since 2015, U.S. warships have conducted regular freedom-of-navigation missions in the South China Sea. As China’s military strength increased, the regime actively competed for the South China Sea waters. The CCP had turned some South China Sea islands into artificial islands, which were then converted into military bases equipped with missiles, radar systems, and airstrips. The CCP has also established a large coast guard force to interfere with fishing and offshore oil and gas drilling by Southeast Asian countries, according to Taiwan’s Institute for National Policy Research.

The Chinese regime has become increasingly bold in expressing its desire to invade and conquer Taiwan by force. In February, CIA Director William Burns noted that U.S. intelligence information indicated that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had ordered the People’s Liberation Army to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan by 2027.

Taiwan Strait 

In 2017, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin was willing to admit that the Taiwan Strait was an international waterway shared by both sides of the strait.

However, on June 14 last year, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin claimed that China has “sovereign rights” over the Taiwan Strait. “The waters of the Taiwan Strait extend from the coasts on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to the centerline of the Strait, which are, in order, China’s internal waters, territorial waters, contiguous zone, and exclusive economic zone,” Wang said.

“The CCP is changing the definition of its territorial waters,” Schuster noted. “I would not be surprised if it claimed that the waters around Taiwan are Chinese waters. I think they want to claim as much of the first island chain as possible.”

CCP’s Political Ambition

Schuster said the recent interception by the Chinese navy ship was a military move, but the political intention behind it was to deter foreign ships, especially warships, from crossing the Taiwan Strait.

“Their goal is to claim these waters for themselves,” Schuster said. “If the U.S. stops sending warships across the Taiwan Strait in response to the CCP’s tactics, then the Taiwan Strait will become de facto Chinese waters.”

Schuster explained that the United States is using freedom of navigation to counter China’s plan, showing the world that all countries can freely navigate in international waters. He added that the United States would never back down on the issue of freedom of navigation because it is one of the oldest U.S. foreign policies.

CCP’s Test on Bottom Line of US

Air Force soldiers stand in front of an armed F-16V fighter jet behind two U.S.-made Harpoon AGM-84 anti-ship missiles during a drill at the Hualien Air Force base in Taiwan on Aug. 17, 2022. Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images

Schuster believes the Taiwan Strait interception was just one of Beijing’s tests for U.S. political leaders. Other similar acts of aggression include the recent hacking of critical infrastructure in Guam and the incident with Chinese citizens attempting to infiltrate military bases in Alaska posing as tourists. China’s increased military drills around Taiwan and the Chinese spy balloon incident further showed that the CCP is testing how the United States would react to its aggressive tactics, he said.

According to Schuster, these “tests” are one of the ways by which the CCP measures the intentions and political will of its adversaries. The opponents’ reactions give Beijing a glimpse of their political thinking, the actions they are considering, their capabilities, and their beliefs about their responsiveness.

“These actions [by the CCP] should be seen as a wake-up call to our leaders and to the American public. The Beijing authorities are hostile to the international order in general and the United States in particular. Our response will not be cheap, but we need to respond—economically, diplomatically, and militarily,” Schuster said.