HMCS Regina sails past the Victoria shoreline on August 6, 2020. (Department of National Defence)
(Written by Todd Coyne. Originally published here in CTV News, republished with permission.)
A Canadian warship on its first-ever Arctic patrol encountered a Chinese polar research vessel in the Bering Strait off Alaska earlier this month, as the Department of National Defence says global competitors are increasingly probing Canadian infrastructure and gathering intelligence in a warming Arctic.
A National Defence spokesperson on Wednesday confirmed the encounter with the Chinese vessel in response to questions CTV News raised last week about the presence of a Chinese military task group in the region.
Department spokesperson Frederica Dupuis said HMCS Regina and its CH-148 Cyclone helicopter “interacted safely and professionally” with the Chinese research vessel Xue Long 2 as it transited the strait, but did not have any encounters with the four-warship task group, which she said “remained in international waters at all times.”
The presence of the Chinese military flotilla was first noted earlier this month by the U.S. Coast Guard, which detected the foreign vessels within the country’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the Alaska coastline, on July 6.
HMCS Regina was dispatched from Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, near Victoria, the following day, in what Dave Mazur, the commander of the Canadian navy’s Pacific fleet, described in a social media post as “on short notice for a brief but impactful deployment.”
In a July 10 statement, the U.S. Coast Guard said the Chinese People’s Liberation Army vessels responded to radio communications and stated their purpose in the area as “freedom of navigation operations.”
