Taipei - China sailed its aircraft carrier Shandong through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Friday, shadowed by an Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer, USS Ralph Johnson, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, just hours before the Chinese and U.S. presidents were due to talk.

China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has over the past two years stepped up its military activity near the island to assert its sovereignty claims, alarming Taipei and Washington.

The source, who was not authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Shandong sailed close to the Taiwan-controlled island of Kinmen, which sits directly opposite the Chinese city of Xiamen, and was shadowed by a U.S. warship.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry, China's Defence Ministry and the U.S. Navy has not commented on the situation.

President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping are set to speak on Friday as the White House warns Beijing that providing military or economic assistance for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will trigger severe consequences from Washington and beyond.

The U.S.-China relationship, long fraught, has only become more strained since the start of Biden’s presidency. Biden has repeatedly criticized China for military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.

Earlier this week, the U.S. informed Asian and European allies that American intelligence had determined that China had signaled to Russia that it would be willing to provide both military support for the campaign in Ukraine and financial backing to help stave off the impact of severe sanctions imposed by the West.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi met in Rome earlier this week for an intense, seven-hour talk about the Russian invasion and other issues.

Xi and Putin met in early February, weeks before the invasion, with the Russian leader traveling to Beijing for the start of the Winter Olympics. During Putin’s visit, the two leaders issued a 5,000-word statement declaring limitless “friendship.”

Despite tensions in U.S.-China relations, Biden and Xi have sought to keep the leader-to-leader dialogue open and have become familiar with each other through their political rise.
-Reuters/AP