China Responds as US and Canada Sail Warships to Flashpoint

China claimed its military “tracked and monitored” two warships sent by the United States and Canada as they passed through the contested waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.

The U.S. Navy said an American destroyer, USS Higgins, and a Canadian frigate, HMCS Vancouver, conducted what it called a routine Taiwan Strait transit in waters where “high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.”

The waterway, which is 110 miles wide, separates mainland China to the west and Taiwan to the east, a self-ruled island that has been viewed by Beijing as part of its territory. The strait also connects the East China Sea to the north and the South China Sea to the south.

This joint U.S.-Canada naval operation is the first such transit in the Taiwan Strait since October 14, when the Chinese military conducted a large-scale exercise around Taiwan, focusing on blockades on key ports and areas as well as assaults on sea and land targets.

China has also long claimed the waterway is under its jurisdiction. The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese military, which is in charge of operations in the Taiwan region, said on Monday it tracked and monitored the warships throughout the transit on high alert.

Senior Captain Li Xi, the Eastern Theater Command’s spokesperson, accused the U.S. and Canada of stirring up troubles and sabotaging peace and stability in the region, while the command maintained vigilance and was determined to defend China’s sovereignty and security.

The U.S. Navy insisted that both warships “transited through a high seas corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” demonstrating commitments by the U.S. and Canada to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle.

Each coastal state may claim a territorial sea that extends seaward up to 12 nautical miles from the coast, where it exercises sovereignty over the waters and the airspace above it.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, transit passage applies to straits that are used for international navigation, where all ships have this freedom of navigation “solely for the purpose of continuous and expeditious transit.”

Without naming China, the U.S. Navy urged not to limit navigational rights and freedoms for the international community in the strait, saying Washington rejected any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that was inconsistent with the lawful uses of the sea and air.

The Taiwanese military confirmed on Monday that an American and a Canadian naval vessel sailed through the Taiwan Strait from south to north the previous day, claiming the island’s armed forces maintained “full control” over the surrounding sea and airspace.

The U.S. military has routinely operated in the Taiwan Strait, showing support to Taiwan when the island faced mounting military pressure from China. The previous transit was carried out by a Navy P-8A maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft on September 17.

Besides Canada, several of Washington’s allies have sent warships to the strategic waterway as well. On September 13, two warships from Germany passed through the strait, while three naval vessels from Japan, Australia, and New Zealand transited on September 25.

It was not the first time the Higgins and the Vancouver transited the Taiwan Strait in formation, where they had passed through the strait together on September 20, 2022.

The Higgins is one of the U.S. naval ships forward deployed to Yokosuka in Japan, while the Vancouver has been on a six-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region since June.