U.S. destroyer and oceanographic survey ship. Representative image.
Reuters File Photo
China's military said it organised naval and air forces to monitor the navigation operations of a U.S. destroyer and oceanographic survey ship crossing the Taiwan Strait from February 10-12, according to state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday.
The behaviour of the United States sends wrong signals and increases security risks, the military's Eastern Theatre spokesperson Colonel Li Xi said.
"Troops in the theatre are on high alert at all times and are resolute in defending national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability," Li said.
The U.S. Navy later confirmed on Tuesday two of its ships carried out a Taiwan Strait transit, calling it routine despite an angry reaction from Beijing.
The Navy said the vessels were the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit February 10-12, it said.
"The transit occurred through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that is beyond any coastal state's territorial seas," said Navy Commander Matthew Comer, a spokesperson at the U.S. military's Indo-Pacific Command.
"Within this corridor all nations enjoy high-seas freedom of navigation, overflight, and other internationally lawful uses of the sea related to these freedoms."
The American vessels' operation would be the U.S.'s first mission through the politically sensitive strait since President Donald Trump took office last month.