US rejects China’s claims over Taiwan Strait as concerns grow

Bloomberg

Biden administration officials have decided to reject a vague new assertion by China that the Taiwan Strait is not “international waters” and are increasingly concerned the stance could result in more frequent challenges at sea for the democratically-governed island, according to people familiar with the matter.
Chinese officials have made such remarks repeatedly in meetings with US counterparts in recent months, Bloomberg reported last week. That raises the prospect that China could be preparing a new challenge to US regional influence and military power in a key area of discord between the two countries.
China has long asserted that the Taiwan Strait is part of its exclusive economic zone, and takes the view there are limits to the activities of foreign military vessels in those waters. While China regularly protests US military moves in the Taiwan Strait, the legal status of the waters previously wasn’t a regular talking point in meetings with American officials.
The timing of the assertion is causing alarm within the administration, given that the global security environment is already fraught in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In February, China and Russia suggested in a joint statement that they might support each other’s territorial claims in a way that one official said resembled a bid to carve out spheres of influence.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the matter and his national security team is examining the Chinese claim to understand exactly what it entails, the people said. The team is looking at the language China has used to describe the strait in previous decades and is working with US allies to assess their interpretations of the language.
US officials are increasingly concerned that the claim may be a deliberate effort to muddy the legal interpretation of the sea around Taiwan in ways that could suggest that China regards it as an internal waterway, officials said.