TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A US Navy destroyer conducted a "routine" transit through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.

The US Navy's Seventh Fleet told Newsweek that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence "conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit" on April 23 through "waters where freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law." It said the ship navigated through a "corridor in the strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state."

This marks the second passage through the Taiwan Strait by a US Navy vessel since US President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January. The previous patrol was conducted in February by two US Navy ships, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch.

China's Eastern Theater Command Senior Spokesperson Shi Yi (施毅) said the USS William P. Lawrence sailed through the Taiwan Strait and “publicly hyped it up.” Shi said the PLA dispatched naval and air forces to monitor the US warship's passage, and the report included a video of a Chinese navy sailor observing the destroyer with binoculars. 

The report also cited Flightradar24 as detecting a US Navy MQ-4C Triton reconnaissance drone from Guam's Andersen Air Force Base flying south of the Taiwan Strait during the destroyer's journey through the strait. 

A Ministry of National Defense spokesperson told Taiwan News it did not have information on the matter.