U.S. Navy P-8 Flies Over Taiwan Strait, Causing China to Scramble - USNI News

China’s People’s Liberation Army scrambled fighter jets to monitor a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon that flew over the Taiwan Strait Friday, according to U.S. and Chinese statements.

The P-8A flew over the Taiwan Strait in international airspace early Friday local time, according to a U.S. Navy news release.

“The aircraft’s transit of the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Navy statement reads. “The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate anywhere international law allows including within the Taiwan Strait.”

Chinese Col. Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, called the aircraft’s transit “provocative.”