Canadian and United States naval ships transited the international waters of the Taiwan Strait in mid-October 2024, less than a week after the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military conducted war games around the self-governed island.
The U.S. Navy, occasionally joined by ships of Allies and Partners, sails through the strait about once a month. The CCP claims Taiwan as its territory and threatens to annex it by force. Beijing also contends it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-kilometer-wide strategic waterway between the island and mainland China, a claim that is widely dismissed.
The Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Vancouver and the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Higgins made a routine transit “through waters where high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet stated.
The transit demonstrated the nations’ commitment to upholding navigational freedom for all countries, according to the statement. The Taiwan Strait, which connects the East China Sea to the north and the South China Sea to the south, is a global trade route.
“The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited. The United States rejects any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedoms of navigations, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” the 7th Fleet said.
Australia, Germany, Japan and New Zealand sent naval vessels through the waterway in September 2024, Newsweek magazine reported. The Canadian and U.S. navies also conducted a joint transit in November 2023.
The CCP’s latest round of war games around Taiwan focused on mock blockades of key Taiwan ports, as well as simulated assaults on sea and land targets, Newsweek reported. The large-scale drills, which were conducted without notice, drew widespread condemnation for threatening regional peace and stability.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, transit passage applies to straits that are used for international navigation, where all ships have this freedom of navigation “solely for the purpose of continuous and expeditious transit.
