Two Canadian naval vessels were “buzzed” by Chinese fighter jets when they sailed through the East China Sea this week, the Canadian military said on Thursday.
A Canadian navy helicopter was also targeted by a laser detected from a nearby fishing boat, it said in a statement.
There were no injuries nor damage, but the revelations come amid heightened tensions between the two nations over Canada’s arrest of a senior telecom executive in December last year and China’s detention of two Canadian nationals in apparent retaliation.
The Canadian Department of National Defence said the frigate HMCS Regina and support vessel Asterix were in “international waters in the East China Sea” when two Chinese Su-30 fighter jets “passed the ship at a range of approximately 300m and an altitude of approximately 100 feet [30m].”
The so-called “buzzing” happened on Monday at about 3:30pm local time, it said.
The ships had been shadowed by several Chinese vessels and aircraft as they transited through the maritime region.
Ottawa described the interactions as “professional and cordial,” adding that the Chinese flypast was “not hazardous, nor unexpected” given the naval operation’s proximity to China.
Both ships had just come from a visit to Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay and were headed to Northeast Asia to join a multinational effort to prevent smuggling in evasion of UN sanctions against North Korea.
Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated since December last year when police in Vancouver detained Huawei Technologies Co Ltd chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) on a US arrest warrant.
Days later China arrested two Canadians — former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor — in what is widely seen as a tit-for-tat move.
Leaders of the two nations, both in Osaka, Japan, for the G20 leaders’ summit, have not spoken since.
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