The US Department of Defense (DND) belatedly acknowledged on Wednesday that a Chinese polar research vessel was tracked by a Canadian warship in the Bering Strait off the coast of Alaska several weeks ago.
In a statement to multiple media organizations, the ministry said the frigate HMCS Regina, which was returning to its home port of Esquimalt, British Columbia, encountered the research vessel Xue Long 2 while passing through the strait.
Both the frigate and CH-148 Cyclone helicopter were in safe and proper communication with the Chinese vessel, which is believed to still be somewhere in the Far North, the ministry said in a statement.
While the polar research vessel was in the region, a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat encountered a flotilla of four Chinese vessels within the U.S. exclusive economic zone.
“The Chinese naval task force did not encounter HMCS Regina,” Defense Ministry spokeswoman Frederica Dupuy said. “To protect the safety of our missions and personnel, we will not disclose further specific operational details.”
The U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement last month that it had been monitoring the Chinese task force until it returned to the Pacific Ocean south of the Aleutian Islands.
HMCS Regina deployed “at short notice”
According to an online ship-tracking website, the HMCS Regina turned off its location transponder when it entered the Bering Sea on July 13. The warship did not reappear until it was spotted in the Arctic four days later.
Similarly, online aircraft spotters suggest that the Chinese survey vessel is being monitored by a Canadian CP-140 Aurora, a maritime patrol aircraft flying missions from Anchorage, Alaska, towards the area where Xuelong-2 is operating.
According to a Navy social media post, HMCS Regina was deployed from its home port “at short notice” for a “brief but impactful deployment.” Until Wednesday, Ministry of National Defense statements had made no mention of the encounter with Xue Long 2.
The surveillance came just days before a surprise visit to China by Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, who traveled to Beijing to try to repair frosty diplomatic relations between Canada and China.
The Ministry of Defence did not respond to questions from CBC News about why the encounter between the frigate and Xue Long 2 had not been publicly acknowledged in an earlier statement.
Instead, Dupuy said the Arctic is becoming more accessible to foreign powers with growing capabilities and regional military ambitions.
“Our competitors are seeking access, transportation routes, natural resources, critical minerals and energy sources through a more frequent and regular presence and activity, and are not waiting around to gain an advantage,” Dupuy said in an emailed statement.
“They are exploring the Arctic ocean and the seabed, probing our infrastructure and gathering intelligence. We are seeing increased Russian activity in our aerial vicinity, and Chinese dual-purpose research vessels and surveillance platforms are collecting data on Canada’s north, which, under Chinese law, is being provided to the Chinese military.”
Rob Hubert, a defence expert at the University of Calgary, said despite China’s plans to build icebreakers, he doesn’t believe Beijing wants to become a “major hegemon” in the Arctic.
He said he believed China was conducting patrols in the region to “keep U.S. forces dispersed as much as possible,” to alarm allies such as Canada and to divert attention from Taiwan.
“China is going to raise the threat level high enough,” Hubert said. “The U.S. is going to have to say, ‘You can’t leave China.'” [the Arctic shipping lanes] “Defenseless.”
