The USS William P. Lawrence, seen here in the Pacific last August, passed through the Taiwan Strait on April 23, 2025, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. (Evan Diaz/U.S. Navy)
The U.S. Navy sent a guided-missile destroyer on a solo transit of the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, the second Navy trip through the contentious waterway this year, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The USS William P. Lawrence made a routine transit through the 110-mile-wide waterway “where freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” according to an email Friday from an INDOPACOM spokeswoman.
The strait separates the Chinese mainland from Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing considers a wayward province it promises to reclaim.
The Lawrence’s transit “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle,” wrote INDOPACOM spokeswoman Air Force Maj. Susan Harrington.
China in September asserted sovereignty over the strait, a claim disputed by other countries. Even so, international law allows “innocent passage” by warships through territorial waters.
“The ship transited through a corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” Harrington said. “The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited. The United States rejects any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedoms of navigation, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air.”
A spokesman for China’s Eastern Theater Command denounced the passage as a publicity measure and the American justification for it as a distortion.
“The US’s relevant remarks distorted the fact, confused the public and misled the international perception. We urge the US side to stop distorting and hyping up, and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability,” Army Senior Col. Shi Yi said in a statement published Thursday by the government-sponsored China Military Online.
The Chinese command tracked the Lawrence throughout its progress “and dealt with it in accordance with the law,” according to the statement, which did not give further details.
The online report included a 10-second video clip that appeared to be recorded from the deck of a Chinese vessel while a crewman kept watch on a distant warship’s silhouette.
The Chinese military held two days of exercises April 1-2 in which its forces rehearsed a Taiwan blockade and conducted live-fire drills, according to the Reuters news agency.
The Lawrence is part of Carrier Strike Group 1 assembled around the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and operating in the Philippine Sea, “demonstrating the ship’s operational readiness and the U.S. Navy’s commitment to a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” according to a U.S. 7th Fleet news release Friday.
In the Philippines, a contingent of U.S. Marines, including F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters and MV-22 Ospreys tiltrotor airlifters have joined Philippine forces for their largest annual military exercise, Balikatan.
The last Navy transit of the strait took place Feb. 11-12 when the guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the survey ship USNS Bowditch moved southwest from the East China Sea to the South China Sea.
Japan has sent two destroyers through the strait since September, the first known passage of the waterway by the Self-Defense Forces.
In October, the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins and Canadian frigate HMCS Vancouver made the passage.
