Although there is due to be a change of US administration in less than a month, Washington has shown no sign of ratcheting down its confrontation with the Chinese mainland over the Taiwan question. Instead, it keeps sending wrong signals to the island's secessionist forces, which will only heighten strategic competition with Beijing.

In an apparent move to show the US will continue its so-called freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea as well as show its support to the pro-independence forces on the island, the US guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin sailed through the Taiwan Straits on Friday.

This marked the 12th appearance of ships from the US Navy in the waters this year, and the US military has also increased the frequency of its overflights in the area. Not to mention that Washington has approved 11 batches of arms sales to Taiwan since Donald Trump took office, six of them this year.

Taiwan also features prominently in the US National Defense Authorization Act, which, worth some $740 billion, would both authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 and set forth policies for the Pentagon's programs and activities. With many parts of the bill concerning the Chinese island, the US is obviously further emboldening the secessionists on the island with the arms sales.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural and justifiable that the Chinese mainland demonstrate a stronger political resolve and military capability to respond to the US provocations.

In a latest move to show its determination to safeguard its territorial integrity and sovereignty, a Chinese carrier group led by its first domestically developed aircraft carrier, the CNS Shandong, passed through the Taiwan Straits on Sunday to conduct training in the waters of the South China Sea.

The People's Liberation Army has increased its training activities in waters near the Taiwan Straits, including habitually sending military aircraft to fly around the island, to deter Taiwan separatists and their foreign supporters from crossing a line of no return.

The Trump administration's political brinkmanship regarding Taiwan only places the island in the whirlpool of a potential regional crisis that will create geopolitical uncertainties worldwide. It is the US' insistence on playing the Taiwan card that has stoked tensions in the Taiwan Straits and worsened the island's security outlook.

Neither the incumbent US administration nor its successor should underestimate China's resolve and determination to safeguard its territorial integrity and sovereignty. And neither the US nor Taiwan authorities should dream the dream that they can undermine the nation's reunification efforts.