A pair of U.S. naval vessels carried out Washington’s first reported Taiwan Strait transit of 2026, according to Chinese and U.S. officials. (From: US Naval Institute News.)
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command claimed that Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113 ) and Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) transited the strategic strait between Friday and Saturday.
Senior Colonel Xu Chenghua, a spokesperson for the command, stated that Chinese naval and air forces monitored and tracked the destroyer and survey vessel to ensure “effective response and management.”
U.S. 7th Fleet confirmed the transit in a statement from a following an earlier version of this post,
“USS John Finn (DDG 113) and Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Jan. 16 to 17 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law. The ships transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” reads the statement. “The transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle. The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited. The United States rejects any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedoms of navigation, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air.”
On Friday, China launched 25 sorties of fighters, support aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles over the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense’s PLA aerial. The report said six of these flights crossed the median line, the unofficial boundary between Taiwan and China in the strait. According to Taipei, these Chinese aerial operations were carried out between Friday and Saturday, aligning with the transit of John Finn and Mary Sears.
This Taiwan Strait transit is the first conducted by the U.S. in 2026. The presence of the American naval vessels also comes after a period of high-intensity PLA and China Coast Guard “Justice Mission” exercises around Taiwan at the end of 2025. These drills saw Beijing posture against “external intervention” forces seeking to aid Taipei with arms shipments and other means of military support.
“The troops of the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command remain on high alert to resolutely safeguard China’s national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability,” concluded the PLA release.
A similar destroyer-survey ship composition was utilized during the Second Trump Administration’s first Taiwan Strait, which saw the USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) and USNS Bowditch (T-AGS-62) sail through the waters last year.
The transit comes as carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) has operated for the last three weeks in the South China Sea near the contested Scarborough Shoal for the last few weeks, according to USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker.
