China protested Wednesday against the sailing of a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer through the Taiwan Strait the previous day, accusing the American side of hyping the maneuver.
The Navy's Japan-based 7th Fleet said late Tuesday that the passing of the USS Sampson through the 160-kilometer- (100-mile-) wide waterway between Taiwan and China “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
