Beijing - Saba:
The Chinese army considered the transit of the Canadian frigate HMCS Ottawa through the Taiwan Strait to undermine peace and stability in the region.
This came according to a statement published by the official account of the Eastern Region Operations Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on the "WeChat" application today, Monday.
The spokesman for the Eastern Region Operations Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Li Shi, said:
"The Canadian side's statements distort legal principles and are misleading, and its actions deliberately create chaos and unrest and undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait."
He added that "the forces of the operations area are in a state of constant combat readiness and resolutely resist all threats and provocations."
The situation around Taiwan had become significantly more tense after the visit of former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in early August 2022, which was condemned by China, which considers the island one of its provinces, and considered that visit as American support for Taiwanese separatism.
Official relations between the Chinese central government and Taiwan were severed in 1949 after the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, who had been defeated in a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, moved to Taiwan.
Commercial and unofficial contacts between the island and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the two sides have been in contact through non-governmental organizations such as the Beijing Association for the Promotion of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Straits Exchange Foundation in Taipei.
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