TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer patrolled through the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday (July 19), prompting China to accuse the U.S. of being a "maker of security risks."

The U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet on Tuesday announced that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) had "conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit" that day "through international waters in accordance with international law." The press release said the warship had navigated through a "corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state."

The Seventh Fleet emphasized that the warship's passage "demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific." The statement added that the "United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows."

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday (July 20) said that during the ship's northward journey through the strait, the military used joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance to monitor movements at sea and in the air around Taiwan and described the situation as normal.

Also on Wednesday, The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command issued a statement in which it described the transit of the U.S. warship as generating "public hype." It claimed that such "frequent provocations" by the U.S. demonstrate that the country is a "destroyer of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."

It then accused the U.S. of being a "maker of security risks" in the Taiwan Strait. The PLA closed by vowing to maintain a high level of alert at all times and "resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."