White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says the United States will not accept China’s escalated military activity near Taiwan as a “new normal.”
Since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in early August, China has held unprecedented military activities near Taiwan. On Monday, Kirby said China is trying to establish a “new normal” of aggression towards Taiwan. That includes sailing ships and flying aircraft over the unofficial median line in the Taiwan Strait. Chinese drones have also flown very close to Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Kirby said, “They’re trying to turn up the temperature to a degree where it becomes sort of this new normal. We’re not going to accept it.”
He added, “We’re going to do what we can in accordance with the law to help Taiwan defend itself, as well as to defend our own national interest just as you saw over the weekend when two navy cruisers conducted the Taiwan strait transit in international waters.”
The two ships were the USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville. They undertook what the Navy’s 7th fleet described as a “routine transit.” The US Navy said the operation demonstrated the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, and that the U.S. military flies, sails and operates anywhere international law allows.