After months of secretive planning, and preparing the crew to defend their ship if necessary, the Royal Canadian Navy has transited the Taiwan Strait.
As HMCS Ottawa entered the busy and strategically critical body of water at sunrise, it was flanked by three Chinese warships armed with missiles and torpedoes. They mirrored Ottawa’s moves for the entire 17-hour crossing.
Canada made the journey along with the USS Ralph Johnson, a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer, in what both countries describe as a freedom of navigation exercise.
I mean … no? We do have a good track record of defending everyone’s right to transit international waters. There’re maps of the US claims to how far off our coast we claim. It’s not out of the ordinary as far as I know.
But our attitude? Yeah, with the “right” elected leaders, I could see that changing.
Ah, yeah. That was more my thrust… The attitude about enforcing open transit, because of course that’s what the US will do.
e: dumb typos
Understood. Yeah, we’re assholes about plenty of things, but we do defend the world’s right to open transit. China is trying to grab power in international trade by theft. The answer is no.