Joe Keary
Spiegel magazine has reported that two German warships are set to sail through the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years. Germany will join a growing number of Indo-Pacific and European nations that regularly sail through the Taiwan Strait to challenge Beijing’s claims that the Strait is ‘internal waters’ belonging to China.
The Chinese government rejects the notion that the Strait should be ‘used for international navigation’, as defined by article 37 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Beijing has determined that the Strait is too narrow to be defined as ‘high seas’ and has outlined that the waters of the Taiwan Strait, ‘from both shores towards the middle of the Strait, are China’s internal waters, then territorial sea, the contiguous zone and then exclusive economic zone’. Beijing incorrectly maintains that innocent passage by foreign militaries in the Taiwan Strait violates its sovereign rights.
Countries challenge Beijing’s unilateral determination by using military assets to undertake transits of the Taiwan Strait, simultaneously reinforcing UNCLOS and the need for unimpeded transit and a free and open Indo-Pacific region. However, not all countries choose to take the same approach. Some countries use transits to publicly challenge China and reinforce the need for international laws and norms, while others quietly pass through the Strait, making their presence known to Beijing, whose ships are always closely following behind.
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