The US reduced its number of naval transits through the Taiwan Strait in 2022 to the lowest level in four years, even as China stepped up military pressure on the island, Bloomberg reported.

The US 7th Fleet sent nine warships through the body of water separating China and Taiwan in 2022, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. The fleet did say it sailed a destroyer though on Thursday, one the Chinese military said it monitored.

Additionally, the US Navy conducted four “freedom-of-navigation operations” through the South China Sea, the fewest in six years, trips it says show its dedication to a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.

The decline in US naval activity contrasts with the roughly 1,700 warplanes that China sent into Taiwan’s sensitive air-defence identification zone in 2022, nearly double the number in 2021.

China considers Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary.

Those incursions are a key aspect of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s efforts to escalate pressure on Taiwan because President Tsai Ing-wen rejected the “one country, two systems” Beijing proposed for the island.

The shift by the US also comes as ties with China have improved since a meeting in November between Xi and President Joe Biden at the Group of 20 Summit meeting in Indonesia.

Reducing the number of voyages through the strait or the South China Sea, where several nations and Taiwan have territorial disputes with China would be a way for the US to eliminate some friction, the Bloomberg report further states.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Image courtesy: AFP