The US navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the strait about once a month.

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, says the strategic waterway belongs to it.

China held its latest round of war games around Taiwan earlier this month, drawing condemnation from Taipei and concern from the US and its allies.

The eastern theatre command of China’s People’s Liberation Army named the ship as the guided-missile destroyer USS William P Lawrence, and said it passed through the strait yesterday in an act of “public hyping”.

“Relevant remarks by the US have inverted right and wrong, distorted legal principles, confused the public and misled international perception,” the command said in a statement, without specifying which comments it was referring to.

“We are telling the US to stop their distortions and hyping and to work together to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

The command also published a short video on its social media account of a Chinese navy sailor observing the US warship with a pair of binoculars from a distance.

It did not give an exact location for the encounter.

The US navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Its last publicly announced sailing through the strait was in February.