American naval vessels transited through the Taiwan Strait for the seventh time since July, highlighting the U.S.’s strategic rivalry with China as Taiwanese presidential hopeful and Foxconn founder Terry Gou called for the island to adopt high-tech defense mechanisms. The destroyers USS Stethem and USS William P. Lawrence sailed through the waters on Sunday and Monday, U.S. Seventh Fleet public affairs officer Clay Doss confirmed to Bloomberg News in an email. It was the seventh such trip reported since the U.S. Navy conducted a similar mission in July 2018, which was then first transit in a year.
