Howls of protest by China as US, Canadian navies sail through Taiwan Strait

After the fleets of the two nations conducted a rare cooperative sailing across the delicate Taiwan Strait, China’s military chastised the US and Canada for “deliberately provoking risk”.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canada’s HMCS Montreal crossed the strait on Saturday during a “routine” passage “through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” according to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet.

“Chung-Hoon and Montreal’s bilateral transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it said in a statement.

The People’s Liberation Army of China’s Eastern Theatre Command claimed that its troops kept an eye on the ships at all times and “handled” the situation in accordance with the law and rules.

“The countries concerned deliberately create incidents in the Taiwan Strait region, deliberately provoke risks, maliciously undermine regional peace and stability, and send the wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence’ forces,” it said late Saturday.

According to Taiwan’s military ministry, the two ships were crossing the strait in a northerly direction, and nothing unusual had been observed.

Although American warships transit the strait around once every month, they infrequently do so with allies of their own country.

The mission was conducted when the U.S. and Chinese defence leaders were in Singapore for a significant regional security gathering.

At that time, Lloyd Austin, the secretary of defence for the United States, chastised China for refusing to engage in military negotiations, which had left the two countries at odds over Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

The Chinese military, which regularly accuses them of being an American attempt to inflame tensions, made no immediate comment in response to the sailing.

In the confined strait, the last such publicly disclosed American-Canadian mission occurred in September.
China has been ramping up military and political pressure in an attempt to force Taiwan to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims, which the government in Taipei strongly rejects.

(With agency inputs)

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