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Most people are unaware of significant details. I will attempt to put in simple terms:

When ever the US/China/Taiwan political situation heats up, like is happening right now, you will start to hear talk of the "Taiwan Strait." They will run news stories about big bad China laying claim to the the waters of the strait, or flying warplanes into Taiwan air space. Occasionally the US will sail warships through the Taiwan Strait and China will complain about the US infringing on it's territorial waters etc.


So who is lying and who is telling the truth? Which side is really doing inappropriate things? The problem is that it is impossible to tell from a news story because of the specifics of the geography of the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan proper sits about 150 miles off the coast of mainland China. When most people hear "Taiwan Strait" they think of this 150 mile wide strip of water running between Taiwan and China. The problem is that the area is littered with a collection of small islands some of which are under Taiwan's control and some are under China's control. Most important is Quemoy Island, or Kinmen Island which sits a mere 1.5 miles off the coast of mainland China. It literally sits in the harbor of the city of Xiamen.

So when the US military says they are sailing a warship through the Taiwan Strait it sometimes means nothing and sometimes it means the US sailed a warship into the harbor of a major Chinese city and flipped them the bird. When the PLA flies warplanes in to Taiwan air space, sometimes they are buzzing the Taiwan mainland and sometimes they are flying planes over their own harbor.

https://cdn.britannica.com/64/4564-050-EA4FD54D/Taiwan-map-features-locator.jpg

Look at this map and note the location of Quemoy island, Tung-Ting island, Wu-Ch'iu island, etc. Now look at Liu-Ch'iu island. These are the specific areas that have caused tensions. You should now understand why you cannot just read a headline. I am not sympathetic to the Chinese in any way but even I have to admit that sailing a ship between Quemoy and Xiamen places the US in the role of the aggressor. Buzzing Liu-Ch'iu island with war planes firmly places China in the role of aggressor. Western media intentionally keeps this all very vague for western audiences so they can spin any story any way they want.

Now go read this story and tell me who is right and who is wrong.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-us-escalate-over-legal-status-taiwan-strait-after-beijing-rejects-international Both sides are making unreasonable claims to territory and without knowing very specific details it is impossible to form a good position on any one specific incident.