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.

  • Armen12@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    China has been hit with the worst flooding in over 100 years and they concern themselves with territory they don’t own instead of actually fixing their own problems lol

    Perfect metaphor for the CCP

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Do you know anything about Chinese history? Governments have been overthrown because of their response to floods, not ownership of any particular island.

        It was also a common belief that natural disasters such as famine and flood were divine retributions bearing signs of Heaven’s displeasure with the ruler, so there would often be revolts following major disasters as the people saw these calamities as signs that the Mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_of_Heaven

          • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Uh, if they cared that much about Taiwan they would have taken it by now. They care more about economic stability than “unity”. If you have a degree in “Asian Studies” that includes the Warring States period, you wouldn’t know about political science or economics. You know, recent history?

            The “Mandate of Heaven” is just an idea, but they don’t want to go putting ideas of incompetent government in people’s heads. That’s why they either try to respond well to disasters or cover them up.

    • Lafuma300@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Ah yes, they should be like the Canadians and concern themselves with territory near Nova Scotia and send their ships there; you know, totally sensible stuff.

      • Armen12@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        This isn’t about Canada, the other countries in Asia are fed up with China’s bull***t territorial claims that they make up all the time. Also lets all remember when other countries have had to literally shoot off Chinese ships for illegal fishing in their waters

        "Some 250 Chinese vessels fish for squid just outside Argentina’s 200-mile EEZ, sometimes dashing into Argentina’s waters illegally. When a Chinese jigger intruded in 2018, an Argentine warship pursuing it was nearly rammed by three other Chinese jiggers. “It’s literally a war,” said Milko Schvartzman, a former Greenpeace campaign manager and fisheries expert who estimates the illegal Argentinian fishery at $1 billion a year. “I have no doubt this will end in tragedy.”

        https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/30/china-beijing-fishing-africa-north-korea-south-china-sea/

        China is the incel of Nations, constantly bullying other countries, invading their own territory and stealing whatever they can from everybody then when people push back they cry about it

        • persolb@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I agree with you; but the parent comment is accurately drawing a parallel. Both China and Canada have issues and both are worried about a strait which objectively isn’t ‘theirs’.

          The difference is

          1. China has bigger problems, but the strait is at least close; although China is being a bully
          2. Canada has lesser problems, and the strait is on the other side of the planet; but they seem to at least be defending the public good.

          Point being, tying this to China’s flooding is silly. If Chinas actions are dumb, it is for unrelated reasons.

          • Armen12@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Except that’s wrong because no one is claiming it belongs to anyone but Taiwan because it does belong to Taiwan. Canada isn’t doing this because they think they own the waters, they’re doing it because they’re allies of Taiwan and they’re just defending their allies from being attacked by China

            Canada is actually allied with countries on the other side of the planet. China isn’t allied with anyone but Russia because no one wants China anywhere near them

            Tying this to China’s own internal problems is exactly what this is about because millions of people in China are dying due to the flooding to and the typical incompetence of the government and the CCP doesn’t like when people see what really happens in China. They constantly try to divert attention away from serious disasters happening within their own borders.

          • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Canada isn’t there for their claim, they are there to maintain it’s status as an international waterway

        • Lafuma300@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          China bad, West good, we got it. Let’s go kill them, just to make western chauvinists happy.

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        A better Canadian comparison would be Jamaica (originally was going to be included in Canada), or the Northern US states (we have to US to prevent future conflicts after 1812)

        But that would assume Canada is actively claiming it and was the aggressor. A more homely example is Russia’s claim to Canada’s arctic territory however even that has been mostly diplomatic

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Oh, the CCP showed up to accompany them. That’s nice to know for anyone else thinking of making the trip solo. With such support, I expect we’ll see more people making the sail without needing to worry.

    And here I was under the impression that the CCP was all against China since it claimed ownership of the mainland bit. Maybe they’ll give it back to China.

  • Jaytreeman@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Canada doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a country. How anyone in Canada’s leadership thought this was a good idea, I don’t know.
    There’s an order of operations that should go down before going through.
    First recognize Taiwan.
    Then acknowledge their territorial waters.
    Instead, we get this cosplay of an act

    • AmberPrince@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      More like territorial waters is 12 nautical miles for the coast so even if Taiwan was considered part of mainland China, the straight is like 90nm wide so a majority of it should be freely navigable by any ship. China doesn’t think so and claims the entire thing as territorial waters.

    • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      If we simply reject that fighting for Taiwan’s sovereignty was the sole motivation for this action, I think things make a lot more sense.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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.

    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.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a June news conference that China is firmly determined to defend its sovereignty and security and regional peace and stability.

    During the crossing, CBC News journalists saw that firsthand, with hundreds of cargo vessels leaving Chinese and Taiwanese ports bound for international destinations.

    But Yuki Tatsumi, co-director of the Stimson Center’s East Asia program, a Washington think-tank, says Canada’s involvement rejects that thinking.

    The Canadian frigate is on a nearly five-month deployment and is now plying the South China Sea, through which more than $4.6 trillion in cargo, a third of all global trade, passes each year.


    The original article contains 887 words, the summary contains 155 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!