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25-02-2026
SYDNEY/ BEIJING: An Australian warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait, a government source said on Sunday, in the latest transit of the sensitive waterway by a US ally that Chinese state-backed media said was tracked and monitored by the nation’s military.
In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there.
The Toowoomba, an Anzac-class frigate of the Royal Australian Navy, “conducted a routine transit through the Taiwan Strait” on Friday and Saturday as part of a “Regional Presence Deployment in the Indo-Pacific region”, the source said.
“All interactions with foreign ships and aircraft were safe and professional,” the source said.
China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper, citing an unnamed Chinese military source, reported late on Saturday that “the Chinese People’s Liberation Army carried out full-process tracking, monitoring, and alert operations throughout the transit”.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement that it closely monitors the skies and waters around the island and that the strait is an international waterway for which all countries enjoy the right of freedom of navigation.
“The Ministry of National Defence will not proactively disclose the movements of aircraft and ships of friendly allied countries,” it added, without elaborating.
US warships traverse the strait every few months, enraging Beijing, and some US allies such as France, Australia, Britain and Canada have also made occasional transits.
China has ramped up its military presence around Taiwan and staged its latest war games around the island in late December.
Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
Warships from the United States and its allies, including Britain, Australia and Canada, occasionally pass through the Taiwan Strait, drawing Beijing’s ire.
In September, the destroyer USS Higgins and the British frigate HMS Richmond transited the waters, a mission that the two allies described as routine.
Beijing responded by saying the move sent the wrong signals and undermined peace and stability in the strait.
The Canadian frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec and the Australian guided-missile destroyer HMAS Brisbane also sailed through the strait that month, prompting similar criticism by Beijing.
Beijing views Taiwan as a part of China to be reunited, by force if necessary. The US and most other countries do not recognize the island as independent, but oppose any attempt to take the island by force, and Washington is committed to supplying it with arms.
In December, the Fujian, the PLA Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, made its first transit of the Taiwan Strait since being commissioned just over a month earlier.
China’s deployment this week of a naval fleet led by a Type 075 amphibious assault ship in the Philippine Sea has triggered a rapid response from Australia.
Canberra deployed a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft to track the flotilla, reviving security concerns raised after an unprecedented circumnavigation of the Australian continent by a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fleet nine months ago.
US satellite images, first reported by Australian media on Wednesday, confirmed the presence of the Chinese warships and a nearby helicopter. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
