China Responds as US and Canada Sail Warships to Flashpoint [Video]

China claimed its military “tracked and monitored” two warships sent by the United States and Canada as they passed through the contested waters in the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.

The U.S. Navy said an American destroyer, USS Higgins, and a Canadian frigate, HMCS Vancouver, conducted what it called a routine Taiwan Strait transit in waters where “high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.”

The waterway, which is 110 miles wide, separates mainland China to the west and Taiwan to the east, a self-ruled island that has been viewed by Beijing as part of its territory. The strait also connects the East China Sea to the north and the South China Sea to the south.

This joint U.S.-Canada naval operation is the first such transit in the Taiwan Strait since October 14, when the Chinese military conducted a large-scale exercise around Taiwan, focusing on blockades on key ports and areas as …