May 1, 2025, 9:03 pm
An American warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait in a calculated display of U.S. presence amid ongoing geopolitical and trade tensions with China during the Trump administration.
The USS William P. Lawrence, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, transited the 110-mile (177 km) wide strait on April 23 in what the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command described as a routine passage "through waters where freedoms of navigation and overflight apply, in accordance with international law.”
At the time of the transit, a U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton reconnaissance drone, operating from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, was observed loitering south of the Taiwan Strait, according to data from the flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
This was the second such transit by a U.S. warship during President Donald Trump’s second term and the first since early February, when the USS Ralph Johnson and the USNS Bowditch, a noncommissioned oceanographic survey ship, passed through the same contested corridor.
In February, Japan and Canada deployed warships through the strait, directly challenging China’s territorial claims. Their actions added them to a growing number of U.S. allies demonstrating support for freedom of navigation in the region.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes how USS William P. Lawrence has called China’s bluff ?
#defenseupdates #usnavy #usvschina
Chapters:
0:00 TITLE
00:11 INTRODUCTION
01:36 SPONSORSHIP – NordVPN
02:10 SIGNIFICANCE
04:07 USS WILLIAM P. LAWRENCE
06:14 ANALYSIS
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