Military And Intelligence News Briefs — January 1, 2021

USA World

Ensign Joseph Hurd, far left, from Foley, Alabama, and Lt. j.g. Daniel Feeney, from Old Greenwich, Connecticut, scan the horizon while standing watch in the pilot house as guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) conducts routine underway operations on Dec. 30, 2020, in the Taiwan Strait in support of stability and security for a free and open Indo-Pacific. US Navy photo. 

 * China issued the stark warning after US Navy sent two warships to the waterway 
 * The Chinese army is on high alert and ready to counter any threat, an official said 
 * The US Navy claimed the Thursday operation was ‘a routine Taiwan Strait transit’ 
 * Tensions have been spiking between the two countries over self-ruled Taiwan 
China has made a stark warning to the US after two American warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait in a ‘routine transit’ amid spiking tensions with Beijing. 
The Chinese army is on high alert and ‘ready to counter any threats or provocations’ from the US, said the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs today. 
Beijing also accused the US of staging a show of force after the US Navy conducted what it called the ‘routine Taiwan Strait transit’ on Thursday to ensure ‘a free and open Indo-Pacific’. 
 Military And Intelligence News Briefs — January 1, 2020