Tension..

A US Navy reconnaissance jet flew over the Taiwan Strait on Monday, in a maneuver intended to assert the right to operate in international airspace despite strong objections from the Chinese military.

The US 7th Fleet said the flight of the P-8A Poseidon over the waterway that separates China and Taiwan was conducted in accordance with international law, demonstrating "the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific."

A spokesman for China's Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, Army Senior Col. Shi Yi, accused Washington of hyping the flight and inflaming tensions.

The US flight "has deliberately disrupted the regional situation and jeopardized the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," Shi said in a report on the PLA's English language website.

That allegation was amplified in Chinese state media, with a story in the nationalist state-run tabloid Global Times claiming the flight of the US Navy antisubmarine warfare and surveillance jet was "just another provocation aimed at stirring up troubles. Just a thought.