A Canadian warship passed through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday as part of what Ottawa called a commitment to an open Indo-Pacific region.
The Canadian Ministry of National Defense said the HMCS Montreal frigate had “recently conducted a routine transit” through the Strait.
The transit was a reaffirmation of Canada’s commitment to a “free, open and inclusive” Indo-Pacific region, Canadian Minister of National Defence Bill Blair said.
Photo: US Navy / Naval Air Crewman (Helicopter) 1st Class Dalton Cooper / Handout via Reuters
“As outlined in our Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canada is increasing the presence of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Indo-Pacific region,” Blair said, referring to Canada’s plan for the region announced in 2022.
Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command spokesman Colonel Li Xi (李熹) said the passage of the Canadian frigate had “harassed and disrupted the situation, and undermined peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
China’s troops were on high alert at all times and are “ready to respond to all threats and provocations,” he added.
China claims it has jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait.
US warships, and occasionally US Navy patrol aircraft, pass through or over the Strait about once a month.
Canadian naval vessels are less common, though in November last year the US destroyer USS Rafael Peralta and a Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ottawa conducted a joint transit through the Strait.
In June, during another joint US-Canada drill in the strait, a Chinese warship came within 137m of a US destroyer in what the Pentagon called “an unsafe manner.”
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) in a statement yesterday said that the military had “full control” over the surrounding sea and airspace during the Canadian frigate’s transit from north to south through the Taiwan Strait, adding that it observed nothing unusual.
Separately, the military has been reporting near-daily sightings of Chinese warships around Taiwan’s waters, as well as sorties by drones and fighter jets around the nation.
The MND yesterday said 29 Chinese military aircraft and 10 naval vessels were detected in a 24-hour window ending at 6am.
Additional reporting by AFP
BALLPARKS TARGETED: To further reduce the use of plastic cups, the ministry is considering subsidizing the use of reusable cups at professional baseball games Beverage shops are to be banned from serving drinks in single-use plastic cups in September, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday, adding that it is also considering subsidizing the use of reusable cups at professional baseball games and other enclosed venues. Beverage shops in 21 cities and counties have already stopped using single-use takeaway plastic cups since the Parties Subject to and Means for Single-use Takeaway Beverage Cups Restrictions (一次用飲料杯限制使用對象及實施方式) were implemented on July 1, 2022, the ministry said in a statement. Aside from banning single-use plastic cups, the rules also require shops to provide reusable cups for customers to borrow and
Taiwanese athletes yesterday and on Saturday edged closer to winning a medal in a strong showing in the first two days of the Paris Olympics. Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) defeated Belgium’s Lianne Tan in the group stage of the women’s singles yesterday. Although Tai has not played in any professional competitions in the past three months due to injuries and Olympic preparations, the Taiwanese dispatched Tan in a swift 38 minutes, winning 21-15, 21-14. It was Tai’s third consecutive career victory over Tan. The 30-year-old Taiwanese was next to play longtime friend and rival, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, in the group stage. Per Olympic
GOING SUPER: The government granted four Taiwanese teams free access to use Taipei-1, a supercomputer built by Nvidia, to help develop AI technologies and products Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) is to set up a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan with research teams targeting several advanced technologies, including silicon photonics, artificial intelligence (AI) and heterogeneous integration, a Ministry of Economic Affairs official said on Saturday. An AMD application for the ministry’s A+ global R&D and innovation partnership program was approved this month, granting a more than 30 percent subsidy, or NT$3.31 billion (US$100.82 million), of the company’s total NT$8.64 billion investment, the ministry’s Web site showed. AMD, a US-based central processing unit (CPU) producer and AI chip giant, would invest NT$5.33 billion, while 50 percent
SEVEN-YEAR TERM: Three other defendants were found guilty and sentenced in the trial over legislative office salaries, while a fourth was found not guilty of all charges Anne Kao (高虹安) yesterday was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and suspended as Hsinchu mayor after the Taipei District Court found her guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and the Criminal Code. The court also deprived Kao of her civil rights for four years and she was suspended from office by the Ministry of the Interior. Article 78 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) stipulates that a mayor of a special municipality will be suspended from office if they are found guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act. Kao was accused of taking for her own use more than