China yesterday criticised the United States for causing "trouble and provocation" after the US Navy sailed its first warship through the sensitive Taiwan Strait since presidential and parliamentary elections on the island.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

"US warships and planes have caused trouble and provocation on China's doorstep, and carried out large-scale, high-frequency activities in waters and airspace around China," Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Colonel Wu Qian told reporters.

The US Navy said the destroyer USS John Finn transited through a corridor in the Taiwan Strait that was "beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state".