Taipei: The United States and Taiwan have maintained an unusual silence over the latest passage of the American Navy warship, USS William P. Lawrence, through the Taiwan Strait. The transit, which began late Tuesday evening Taiwan time, was detected by private-sector observers using commercial maritime traffic monitoring websites and subsequently shared on social media on Wednesday.

According to Focus Taiwan, the Taiwan Security Monitor page on X identified the vessel as the USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. The warship’s transit commenced at 10:25 p.m. on Tuesday, and by 10 p.m. the following day, it was located off the southern municipality of Tainan, Taiwan, marking its last known position at press time.

Additionally, the “Taiwan ADIZ” page on X reported the presence of a U.S. Navy MQ-4C reconnaissance drone flying close to Taiwan’s main island during the warship’s transit. The drone, tracked using Flightradar 24’s services, was reportedly flying near Taiwan hours before the transit began.

Despite the usual practice of issuing statements about such transits, both the U.S. 7th Fleet and Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) have remained silent. When approached by CNA for comment, the MND declined to provide any remarks on the U.S. vessel’s transit.

Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, suggested that this silence indicates a normalization of “freedom of navigation” in the Taiwan Strait. He noted that the U.S. vessel subtly announced its transit by turning on its Automatic Identification System (AIS) at the start of the passage and turning it off near the end, making the transit public in a discreet manner.

The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command responded with a standard statement. Spokesperson Shi Yi criticized the U.S. for “publicly hyping” the event despite the absence of any official U.S. comment. Shi stated that the PLA organized naval and air forces to track and monitor the U.S. vessel throughout its course and dealt with it effectively according to the law.