Frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec in front of a monitoring Chinese vessel during a maritime co-operative activity between the Philippines, Australia and Canada near Scarborough Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea in September, 2025.TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images
A Canadian warship transited the Taiwan Strait that’s claimed by China as an internal waterway – in defiance of Beijing’s warning – days before a high-stakes visit by the Chinese Foreign Minister to Ottawa.
The frigate HMCS Charlottetown made the trip last week, the Department of National Defence said Thursday. It undertook this by itself rather than alongside ships of allied countries.
“On May 22, 2026, HMCS Charlottetown conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait, which was completed on May 23, 2026,” spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin said in a statement.
It took the department three days to respond to a question from The Globe and Mail.
Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, is due to arrive in Canada on Thursday for a three-day visit. Ottawa and Beijing are seeking to expand relations amid rising U.S. protectionism. It’s the first trip to Canada by the Foreign Minister in 10 years.
The Canadian warship transit took place just weeks after a warning delivered by Wang Di, China’s ambassador to Canada, in an interview with The Globe last month. The envoy said the new partnership between Canada and China would be harmed if Ottawa sends more military vessels through the Taiwan Strait or if Canadian parliamentarians keep travelling to Taiwan to meet with its government.
The ambassador appeared to be laying out expectations for Canada’s behaviour as the two countries attempt to build on a truce reached in January, 2026, when Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a breakthrough in a painful trade war.
Mr. Carney is seeking bigger overseas export markets and new foreign investment to offset economic damage caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Defence Minister David McGuinty said earlier this month that Ottawa considers the waterway between China and Taiwan to be international waters.
The phrase “international waters” refers to an idea, discussed in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, that straits used for international navigation are subject to transit passage rights – meaning warships can pass through freely without seeking prior permission from the coastal state.
China, by comparison, considers the Taiwan Strait to be an internal waterway.
The People’s Republic of China claims the island of Taiwan, which lies 160 kilometres off its coastline, as a breakaway province. Taiwan, where many from the losing side of China’s civil war fled in 1949, calls itself the Republic of China.
Canada ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1970 and instead, under then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, recognized the Communist-led People’s Republic of China. Since then, Canada’s One China policy recognizes the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China, but it does not back Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s territory.
If Canada considered Taiwan to be Chinese territory it would have a harder time justifying the idea that the channel between the island and the People’s Republic of China is an international waterway.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, who earlier this month travelled to Taiwan to meet Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in defiance of the Chinese ambassador’s warning, welcomed the latest transit.
“I think the government had to signal that that it wasn’t going to comply with Beijing’s unreasonable demand,” Mr. Chong said.
From 2018 until the resignation of former prime minister Justin Trudeau last year, Canadian warships transited the Taiwan Strait 11 times – over the objections of Beijing.
Under Mr. Carney’s government, this has happened only once before. A Canadian frigate made a single trip in September, 2025, along with an Australian destroyer.
HMCS Charlottetown dropped off publicly accessible marine traffic tracking websites earlier this month for more than a week.
In mid-May, the frigate made a goodwill visit to Da Nang, Vietnam, a stop that was reported in local press as lasting about four days.
After that, the Canadian warship disappeared from regular ship tracking websites. This means the ship turned off its automatic identification system transponder that allows it to be tracked.
HMCS Charlottetown reappeared Thursday – more than a week later – with a location just south of the Korean peninsula, according to Steffan Watkins, an Ottawa-based open-source researcher.
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said Canada’s behaviour in the South China Sea and East China “was being watched closely,” noting the trip took place after China’s warning.
She said it’s a strong signal that Canada will purpose its own policies in the Indo-Pacific.
It’s the first time Canada has used the route since Mr. Carney’s visit to China in January and the announcement of the new strategic partnership with Beijing.
“It shows that Canada is committed to upholding international law and ensuring that international waterways, such as Taiwan Strait, are free for passage for all, including Canada,” she said.
“We have to advance multiple objectives at the same time: deepening some economic engagement with China, which is going to be the purpose of the Wang Yi visit, while also standing firm on our overall national security agenda.”
The Chinese embassy in Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to state that Defence Minister David McGuinty said earlier this month that Ottawa considers the waterway between China and Taiwan to be international waters. A previous version included an incorrect date.