A US destroyer and a Canadian frigate on Tuesday sailed through the Taiwan Strait in the latest joint operation aimed at reinforcing the route’s status as an international waterway.
Beijing views as its own the narrow body of water separating Taiwan from China — one of the world’s busiest shipping channels.
The US has long used “freedom of navigation” passages through the Strait to push back against Chinese claims and Western allies have increasingly joined these operations.
Photo: AP
The USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, in cooperation with the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate the HMCS Vancouver “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit” on Tuesday “in accordance with international law,” the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said.
“The ship transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” it said.
Canada said the Vancouver was en route to join an ongoing mission to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea when it transited with the Higgins.
“Today’s routine Taiwan Strait transit demonstrates our commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” Canadian Minister of National Defence Anita Anand said in a statement, using another term for the Asia-Pacific region.
In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed the transit, saying in a statement that the military monitored the ships as they sailed north through the Strait, and did not see any irregularities.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) yesterday said that her ministry welcomed and affirmed the stance of the Canadian and US governments regarding the legal status of the Strait as international waters, and the need to safeguard freedom of navigation, as well as regional peace and stability.
The passage also demonstrates democratic countries’ firm opposition to China’s attempts at expansionism, Ou said.
“The Taiwanese government will continue to strengthen its self-defense capabilities, resolutely resist authoritarian expansion and aggression, and deepen the close Taiwan-US security partnership,” she said. “We will strengthen cooperation with all like-minded countries to jointly safeguard the security of the Taiwan Strait and the rules-based international order.”
A spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command called the transit “public hype.”
“The troops are always on high alert, resolutely counteract all threats and provocations, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” state broadcaster China Central Television quoted Colonel Shi Yi (施毅) as saying.
Australian, British, Canadian and French warships have sailed through the Strait in the past few years, sparking protests from Beijing.
The latest joint passage came a day after US President Joe Biden again declared that US troops would come to Taiwan’s aid in the event of a Chinese invasion.
It was the fourth time Biden made such comments, despite Washington’s longstanding official policy of “strategic ambiguity” — designed to ward off a Chinese invasion and discourage Taiwan from provoking Beijing by formally declaring independence.
Each time after Biden’s comments, the White House said there was no change in US policy on Taiwan.
Additional reporting by CNA
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS