A few days ago, the US Navy's guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey sailed through the Taiwan Strait from south to north. With regard to the provocative act launched by the US military, China's Eastern Theater took action as soon as possible, and followed the "Halsey" throughout the whole process in accordance with laws and regulations. As for the handling of the PLA, many viewers may not understand and be dissatisfied, and feel that there is no need to be so indulgent to the United States, and that they should directly open fire, so as to stop the bad behavior of the Americans and safeguard China's national sovereignty. It is understandable that everyone has such thoughts, after all, every year there is a situation of US warships passing through the Taiwan Strait, which is really annoying.
However, it should be noted here that since China and the United States are not at war, it is not yet suitable to shell US ships entering the Taiwan Strait; first, because the Taiwan Strait is not entirely China's territorial waters, and second, because the nature of the game between China and the United States in the Taiwan Strait has fundamentally changed, and the more frequent the US warships' actions, the more their inwardness is exposed.
First of all, the Taiwan Strait is not a narrow sea area, its widest point is about 220 nautical miles, and its narrowest point is about 130 nautical miles, so the middle part is not covered by the territorial sea and the contiguous zone. China enjoys sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait, but it also respects the legitimate rights of other countries in the relevant waters, so when US warships pass through the Taiwan Strait, our military will not open fire on them, just as the Liaoning has passed through the Miyako Strait many times before, and there will be no problem.
Secondly, there has been a big change in the name of the Taiwan Strait by the Americans, starting in the second half of 2022, when the US warships pass through the Taiwan Strait, the Biden administration no longer mentions that this is "international waters", but says that they fly and sail as permitted by international law, and the reason for this change is that the Chinese Foreign Ministry clearly declared its sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait at that time, so the Americans no longer mention the word "international waters". This change is not easy, and the audience who knows the Americans knows that if we don't have that strength, then they will definitely not change it, and if we can change it, it means that the United States has felt the growth of China's strength.
Before the change, the US warships came to the Taiwan Strait, and they still had a dual political and military deterrence, and after the change, there was only one military deterrent left, which was nothing more than to show that they still have a military presence here. Although this kind of behavior is not illegal, its intentions are sinister, because the United States is not a party to the "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," but it uses international law as an excuse to create a pretext for manipulating the situation in the Taiwan Strait and threatening China's sovereignty and security.
And not only in the Taiwan Strait, but also in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, US military aircraft and warships will appear from time to time, and we must adapt to this. On the one hand, it is necessary to maintain a normal communication mechanism with the United States and communicate in a timely manner, so as to avoid strategic mistakes that lead to a situation that neither country wants to see. On the other hand, in the face of frequent reconnaissance and provocations by US warships and aircraft, we should also intensify our surveillance and expulsion efforts, and preferably fly and sail to the coastal waters of the United States when international law permits. As the saying goes, come without being rude, and since we have to deal with their strength, the Americans also have to adapt to our intensity.