Overview

• The guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence sailed through the Taiwan Strait on April 23, 2025, under international law, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
• China dispatched naval and air forces to monitor and warn the U.S. vessel, labeling the transit as 'public hyping' and accusing the U.S. of distorting legal principles.
• The transit coincided with China's Navy Day, marking the 76th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army Navy, underscoring symbolic timing in U.S. operations.
• The U.S. conducts roughly monthly freedom-of-navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait to assert international maritime rights, despite Beijing's territorial claims.
• Neither Beijing nor Taipei issued formal responses to the transit, though China reiterated its stance that the strait belongs to its territory.