The US military said on Wednesday that a guided-missile cruiser had sailed through the Taiwan Strait just hours after the Chinese military criticized Washington for "adding complexity to regional security" and warned it to stay clear of the island or else risk war.

Trump's support for Taiwan, which recently was cleared by Congress to purchase over $2 billion in US weapons, is among a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and a growing geopolitical conflict in the South China Sea, where China has been expanding its military presence while the United States conducts freedom-of-navigation patrols.

The warship sent to the 112-mile-wide Taiwan Strait was identified as the Antietam. "The (ship's) transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, said in a statement. "The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," he added, quoted by Reuters.