UK Royal Navy Passes Through Taiwan Strait, Angers China

A British Royal Navy vessel sailed through the Taiwan Strait on June 18, drawing the ire of the Chinese regime, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, a self-ruled island.

“HMS Spey’s routine navigation through the Taiwan Strait was part of a long-planned deployment and took place in full compliance with international law,” a Royal Navy spokesperson said in a statement on June 19.

The patrol vessel is only the second Royal Navy warship to sail through the Taiwan Strait since 2008. The first warship, the frigate HMS Richmond, navigated the strait in September 2021. In 2019, the Royal Navy also sent a survey vessel, the HMS Enterprise.

In a statement published on June 20, Liu Runke, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), accused the UK of “undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Liu added that the Eastern Theatre Command would stay on high alert and “resolutely counter all threats and provocations.”

Taiwan’s foreign ministry welcomed the HMS Spey’s passage, saying on June 19 that it was “a concrete step” to “safeguarding the freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs encourages the UK and other like-minded countries to jointly safeguard peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait together, promote a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and maintain a rules-based international order,” the statement reads.

The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but it sees the self-ruled island as a wayward province. It has vowed to annex the island and has never ruled out doing so by force.

Researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Trade, a Washington-based think tank, have said that an estimated $2.45 trillion worth of goods, or more than a fifth of global maritime trade, transited the Taiwan Strait in 2022, and disruptions to the route, such as a PLA blockade, “would send shockwaves” around the world.

In a video published on June 20 on social media platform X, the UK Minister of State for Defence Lord Vernon Coaker, who was onboard HMS Tamar—a patrol vessel permanently deployed in the Indo-Pacific—said that “HMS Tamar and its partner HMS Spey provide a consistent UK presence in this region, joining exercises with partners and conducting freedom of navigation activity.”

The minister said a carrier strike group, led by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Flagship, the HMS Prince of Wales, will be deployed to the Indo-Pacific this summer as part of a joint operation that “includes units from 11 nations and engage over 30 nations,” and shows that “the UK is back and open for business.”

“The UK remains steadfast in maintaining international order based on the rule of law and the principles of the UN Charter that reflect sovereignty and territorial integrity within our own UK national interest,” he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.