The passage of two German Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait has significantly increased security risks in the region, according to the Chinese military. On Friday, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing accused Germany of staging a provocation and violating the One-China policy by allowing the naval frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the supply ship Frankfurt am Main to sail through the strait from north to south.
Taiwan has been de facto self-governing since 1949, when the Nationalist forces lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists and fled to the island. Currently, only 12 countries in the world recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation, while the US adheres to the One-China policy on paper but has unofficially maintained relations with and supported Taipei for decades.
China maintains that Taiwan is an inalienable part of its territory, with President Xi Jinping warning that Beijing could resort to military force to regain control over the island. The Chinese Embassy in Berlin clarified on Friday that the waters in the Taiwan Strait are considered China’s internal waters, territorial waters, contiguous zones, and exclusive economic zones from both sides to the sea.
Despite China’s repeated protests against such naval passages through the Taiwan Strait, the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and France have sent their warships through the waterway on multiple occasions in the past. However, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius dismissed concerns about the German Navy’s actions by stating that “international waters are international waters,” emphasizing that the passage of the Baden-Wuerttemberg frigate and the Frankfurt am Main replenishment ship was merely due to weather conditions and the fact that it is the safest and shortest route.
In response, Senior Captain Li Xi, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command, said that Germany’s actions had increased security risks in the region and sent erroneous signals regarding the issue of Taiwan. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning emphasized that the “Taiwan issue is not about freedom of navigation but about China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” While Beijing respects other countries’ rights to sail in international waters, as defined under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, it firmly opposes “any act of provocation under the pretext of freedom of navigation.
The passage of the German Navy ships through the Taiwan Strait marks the first such instance in 22 years and has been met with mixed reactions from both sides. Despite China’s claims that the waters are internal, international naval passages continue to occur, raising questions about the balance between maintaining regional security and respecting a nation’s sovereignty over its territorial waters.