A Canadian warship patrols contested waters – and is watched closely by Chinese ships

In less than a week since leaving the friendly port of Yokosuka, Japan, the Canadian warship HMCS Ottawa has had at least three interactions with suspected Chinese vessels, the most significant during an exercise in international waters with Japanese and American allies. On Wednesday afternoon, the heavily armed Chinese destroyer, the Luyang, closely followed the convoy of ships in the East China Sea, calling out repeatedly to the Canadians on maritime radio, and coming within just over a kilometre of the allied ships. So close, the commanding officer of HMCS Ottawa called for his intelligence-gathering team to capture imagery of…