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Canada has a lot of much-discussed options on the table when it comes to hitting back at China in the ongoing spat between the two countries. But this week they exercised an option that no major observer guessed was coming.

It wasn’t banning Huawei, as many have urged, or withdrawing from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has pledged to do. Instead, it happened on the other side of the world, right in China’s backyard.

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On Tuesday, the Canadian warship HMCS Regina together with the supply ship MV Asterix transited across the Taiwan Strait. No weapons were fired. No close calls almost brushing up against Chinese ships. No angry words — that we know of — exchanged over radio. Just two ships chugging along.

But that alone is enough to anger Beijing. On April 6, a French warship transited through the strait in what’s believed to be the first such trip for France’s navy. China didn’t appreciate it and denounced the journey as illegal.