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By Micah McCartney
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The transit through the Taiwan Strait on Friday and Saturday by a guided‑missile destroyer and an oceanographic survey ship was the first U.S. Navy passage through the waterway in 2026 and the fourth of President Donald Trump's second term.
A chart maintained by Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, shows how that compares to the final year of the Biden administration.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Seventh Fleet for comment by email.
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Why It Matters
China claims sovereignty over self‑ruled Taiwan and, by extension, over the Taiwan Strait. Taipei, Washington and many other governments view the waterway—which narrows to about 80 miles—as international waters.
In recent years, the U.S. and several allies with a presence in the western Pacific—including Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom—have increased the number of transits in what they characterize as freedom of navigation demonstrations in the channel. China frequently criticizes these activities, saying they threaten regional stability.
What To Know
The passage of the USS John Finn and USNS Mary Sears was the fourth since Trump began his second term in January 2025. It came four months after the last publicly announced transit, carried out jointly by the Arleigh Burke‑class destroyer the USS Higgins and the British Royal Navy's Type 23 frigate HMS Richmond.
Trump's first year back in office marked the fewest number of transits recorded in any year since the U.S. began stepping up passages in late 2018 in response to China's expanded military activity in the waterway.
By comparison, the U.S. is known to have deployed warships—either alone or with an allied vessel—or a P‑8A Poseidon patrol aircraft through the strait nine times during former President Joe Biden's final year in office. The Biden administration oversaw a total of 42 transits between January 2021 and January 2025, according to Koh's database.
What People Are Saying
Xu Chenghua, the spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement: "[The command] deployed its navy and air force troops to monitor and track the U.S. vessels' movements, ensuring effective response and management."
The statement continued: "The PLA Eastern Theater Command remains on high alert to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability."
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The U.S. Seventh Fleet said, per the U.S. Naval Institute News: "The transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States' commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle. 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."
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will match the pace of recent years as 2026 progresses. Although Washington and Beijing remain divided on numerous issues, tensions have cooled somewhat since Trump met Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for trade talks in South Korea in October.
Trump has said he agreed to visit Beijing in April at Xi's invitation.
U.S. defense officials say Xi has directed the People's Liberation Army to be capable of moving against Taiwan by the end of 2027, though this does not mean he intends to act on that timeline.
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