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Two German warships await orders from Berlin, their commander said, to determine whether in September they will be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the disputed Taiwan Strait, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

While the US 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.

The Taiwan Strait is a major trade route through which about half of global container ships pass, and both the United States and Taiwan say it’s an international waterway.

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Germany, for whom both China and Taiwan, with its huge chip industry, are major trade partners, has joined other Western nations in expanding its military presence in the region as their alarm has grown over Beijing’s territorial ambitions.