"Trouble making and provocation!": China condemns warship sailing in Taiwan Strait

China's military on Saturday said its forces had followed and warned a Canadian and an Australian warship, which were sailing through the Taiwan Strait, in a move it condemned as a "provocation".

The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command said the ships, the Canadian frigate Ville de Quebec and the Australian guided-missile destroyer Brisbane, were engaged in "trouble making and provocation".

Chinese air and naval forces followed and warned the two ships and "effectively responded", the command said in a statement.

"The actions of the Canadians and Australians send the wrong signals and increase security risks," it added.

There was no immediate response to requests for comment from either the Canadian or Australian armed forces.

China's state-backed newspaper the Global Times earlier on Saturday reported on the mission.

Taiwan's defence ministry said in a statement that it keeps a close watch on activity in the strait and, "dispatches appropriate air and naval forces to ensure the security and stability," of the waterway, which separates Communist China from the democratic island of Taiwan, which considers it an international waterway.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by James Pomfret in Hong Kong and Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Tom Hogue and Sharon Singleton)