US Navy jets are escorted by Chinese warplanes as they fly over the Taiwan Strait

China has sent naval and air forces to track and follow a US Navy inspection plane as it passed through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, the Chinese military said, amid outcry. the tension between the two great powers upon the end of the the self-governing island of Taiwan.

Colonel Cao Jun, spokesman for China’s Eastern Theater Command Air Force, criticized the US for operating the plane and said it threatened peace and stability in the region.

The US Navy’s 7th Fleet said on Tuesday that a P-8A Poseidon aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft had crossed international airspace over the Taiwan Strait “in accordance with international law,” adding that the aircraft’s presence demonstrates, “the commitment of the United States to -A free and open Indo-Pacific.”

“American soldiers fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” said a statement posted on the US Navy’s website.

According to a description on manufacturer Boeing’s website, the P-8A Poseidon is highly effective in “anti-submarine warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search and rescue.”

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it had noted that there were five Chinese warplanes and seven naval vessels around the island. Four Chinese planes entered Taiwan’s airspace, and Taiwan sent “aircraft, Navy ships, and coastal missile systems to respond to the detected activities.”

China has long claimed the democratic island of Taiwan as part of its territory, and President Xi Jinping has vowed to return it to Beijing’s control after more than seven decades – with power if necessary.

Although the US sees Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China, US domestic law obliges the US to provide Taiwan with military equipment to support the island’s democratically elected government in case of danger.

Most US administrations have maintained a policy of strategic ambiguity about the extent to which they will support Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggression, however.

In September 2022 interview with 60 MinutesPresident Biden said the US would intervene militarily to defend Taiwan from China, “if, in fact, there was an unprecedented attack.”

President-elect Donald Trump has largely sidestepped questions about whether the United States would intervene militarily if China launched an attack on Taiwan. In an interview earlier this year, he said Taiwan should pay the US more for helping with its defense.

The Chinese military regularly conducts land, sea and air exercises in the Taiwan Strait, the water that separates China from Taiwan, which is only about 100 kilometers across at its narrowest point. That exercise has drawn criticism from the island’s government in Taipei, as well as from the White House.