Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether next month they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the disputed Taiwan Strait, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing.
While the U.S. and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the disputed strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy's first passage through the strait since 2002.
China claims sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-kilometer-wide waterway that divides the two sides and is part of the South China Sea.