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HMS Spey Passage Through Taiwan Strait Draws Beijing Rebuke

China has boosted military flights over the waterway after the British patrol vessel sailed on June 18 to contest freedom of navigation.

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The Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Spey is moored pier side during a scheduled port visit at Sasebo naval base in Japan on June 5, 2025.
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Overview

  • The British Royal Navy’s patrol vessel HMS Spey transited the Taiwan Strait on June 18 under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provisions.
  • China’s Eastern Theatre Command condemned the voyage as an “intentional provocation” that undermines regional stability, saying its forces tracked the ship throughout.
  • Taiwan’s foreign ministry welcomed the transit as a defense of international waters and urged allies to uphold peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
  • Japan’s destroyer JS Takanami sailed through the strait on June 12 in a further assertion of allied freedom of navigation operations.
  • Taipei reported detection of over 50 Chinese military aircraft and six naval vessels near the island in the 24 hours to June 20, signaling an intensified PLA presence.