OTTAWA — Just days before China's foreign minister is set to arrive in Ottawa for a pivotal three-day visit, a Canadian warship has transited the Taiwan Strait, underscoring Canada's commitment to freedom of navigation in the region.
The Department of National Defence (DND) confirmed to the Toronto Sun on Thursday that the HMCS Charlottetown, a Halifax-class frigate based out of CFB Halifax, made the journey through the 180-kilometre-wide internationally recognized waterway last weekend.
"On May 22, 2026, HMCS Charlottetown conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait, which was completed on May 23, 2026," read a brief statement from the DND, which also confirmed the Royal Canadian Navy ship made the transit solo.
First Transit Since September 2025
As of Thursday afternoon, online vessel location tracking websites placed the Charlottetown as transiting the western channel of the Korea Strait toward the Sea of Japan, just west of Japan's Tsushima Island. This most recent transit is the first of 2026 and the first time since last September that a Canadian vessel exercised freedom-of-navigation operations through the waterway, which China's communist government has previously described as "provocative."
The transit also occurred less than a week after Conservative Foreign Affairs Critic Michael Chong traveled to Taiwan to meet with that country's president. Chong told the Sun in Taipei that the visit was made in direct defiance of an eyebrow-raising warning from Chinese Ambassador Wang Di that Canadian parliamentarians not visit the democratic nation of Taiwan.
In September 2025, the HMCS Ville de Quebec transited the strait alongside the Australian destroyer HMAS Brisbane, one day after China accused Canada of ratcheting up tensions by participating in freedom-of-navigation exercises with the Philippine navy. Canadian officials at the time said that transit was part of Operation Horizon, Canada's mission to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
While Beijing has yet to issue a formal response to this latest transit, China dismissed last September's transit as "trouble-making and provocative," adding that "the actions of the Canadians and Australians send the wrong signals and increase security risks."
Geopolitical Significance of the Taiwan Strait
The Taiwan Strait is a sensitive, 180-kilometre-wide strip of the South China Sea that separates mainland China from the nation of Taiwan. Insisting the strait does not lie within international waters, Beijing's claims on the internationally recognized waterway are part of larger jurisdictional disputes in the Yellow, East China, and South China Seas as China attempts to exert its influence on its neighbors.
Western democracies routinely conduct freedom-of-navigation transits of the strait to reinforce and affirm international law. The Charlottetown is the ninth Canadian warship to transit the strait over the past five years.
In February 2025, the HMCS Ottawa transited the strait, followed by the HMCS Montréal a few months prior to the Ville de Quebec. In 2024, HMCS Vancouver made a highly publicized transit of the strait alongside the USS Higgins, an American Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. The two ships also made the transit together in September 2022.
