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ABOARD HMCS WINNIPEG IN THE EAST CHINA SEA — For the first time that Canadian sailors can remember, Chinese warships have shadowed ships from the Royal Canadian Navy.

“We have interacted with Chinese ships,” was how HMCS Winnipeg’s captain Cdr. Jeff Hutchison put it.

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A pair of People’s Liberation Army Navy frigates came within three nautical miles of HMCS Winnipeg during a freedom-of-passage exercise the Canadian frigate conducted with U.S., Australian and Japanese warships late last month in the hotly contested South China Sea. The ships were shadowed for about 36 hours, Hutchison said.

“Whenever we are near an American ship the Chinese are there,” said the Winnipeg’s coxswain (or senior enlisted sailor), Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Sylvain Jacquemot. “There is not an American ship in the South China Sea that does not get shadowed by a Chinese ship.

“They were three miles away but there was not a level of hostility. We were both practising freedom of navigation. It was a bit of a cat-and-mouse game. They claim something that the world does not agree with. … They are very active these days.”