HONG KONG (Reuters) -Two warships from Canada and Australia transited the Taiwan Strait while being monitored by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), China’s state media reported on Saturday.
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper said in a report the Canadian frigate Ville de Quebec and the Australian guided-missile destroyer Brisbane were the two vessels that passed through the waterway separating Communist China from the democratic island of Taiwan.
The Taiwan Defence Ministry said it could not immediately comment, and the Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
“The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) maintained full surveillance and monitoring throughout the transit, with the situation fully under control,” the Global Times reported.
The U.S. Navy and occasionally ships from allied countries like Canada, Britain and France transit the strait, which they consider an international waterway, around once a month.
Taiwan also considers it an international waterway. China, which claims Taiwan as its own, says the strategic waterway is part of its territorial waters.
(Reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Comments