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A Taiwanese navy sailor monitoring a Chinese navy warship at sea in August, 2023. Taiwan is the third jurisdiction with which Canada has made a deal to share its Dark Vessel Detection technology.Supplied/AFP/Getty Images
Canada is sharing satellite data with Taiwan to help it identify illegal fishing vessels plying its waters, but the technology, known as Dark Vessel Detection, could also give the island a helping hand in tracking covert or coercive maritime activity by China.
Ottawa this month signed a memorandum of understanding with Taiwan, which is grappling with increasing efforts by China to diplomatically isolate the self-governing democracy and is resisting Beijing’s efforts to annex it. China has staged military exercises around Taiwan more than 12 times since 2018.
It’s part of a blossoming relationship with Taiwan despite the fact that Canada, which does not have formal diplomatic relations with the island, has traditionally been very cautious about anything that might resemble co-operation on security matters with Taipei. Last year, Ottawa posted a cyber attaché in Taiwan to deepen co-operation in combatting computer hacking and disinformation, a significant amount of which originates in China.
The federal government’s Dark Vessel Detection (DVD) program relies on satellites to locate and track vessels whose location-transmitting devices have been switched off. These are sometimes called dark ships or dark vessels. The satellite technology can penetrate cloud cover to detect ships.
The dark-vessel deal was signed by Canada’s top envoy in Taiwan, Jim Nickel, just before he left the post to take up a diplomatic assignment as Canadian ambassador to Vietnam.
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China’s fishing fleet is the largest in the world and numerous watchdogs in recent years have highlighted its significant role in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Taiwan’s fleet has also been repeatedly cited for such offences.
Taiwan is only the third jurisdiction with which Canada has inked a deal to share the technology. Others include Ecuador and the Philippines, which has drawn on the DVD gear in a continuing territorial dispute with China.
The assistance is among the most visible signs of Canada’s emerging Indo-Pacific policy, unveiled in November, 2022, to guide what Ottawa has promised will be a bigger role in the region that stretches from the Indian Ocean to the north Pacific.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said in a statement on X that Canada will provide Taiwan training and access to the DVD platform for a period of two years.
Taiwan has faced increased pressure in recent years from China, which has not ruled out the use of force to annex it. Since 2024, the Chinese Coast Guard has stepped up patrols in restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, incursions seen as an effort by Beijing to normalize their authority over the area.
Beijing’s Communist Party considers Taiwan a breakaway province despite the fact it has never ruled the island, where defeated Nationalist forces retreated after losing the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago.
In February, 2023, two submarine cables connecting Taiwan’s far-flung Matsu Islands to the internet were cut, reportedly by Chinese vessels, within a week of each other. The islands, the closest of which is nine kilometres from China, were without regular internet for 50 days.
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation, a Canadian think tank, calls the DVD program one of the biggest success stories of Ottawa’s Indo-Pacific strategy. She said Indonesia and Vietnam have also expressed interest in the technology.
Ms. Nadjibulla said she believes Taiwan will be able to use the satellite data to help protect itself against China’s grey-zone tactics – disruptive conduct below the threshold of war – that it uses to coerce the island of 24 million.
“It is sold as something that deals with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, but it can also detect dark vessels that are engaged in all sorts of other activities, so anything from drug trafficking to undermining subsea cables and other kinds of infrastructure threats – grey zone tactics that China and other authoritarian actors are involved in,” she said.
Both the Taiwanese government and Ottawa declined to comment on the prospect of Taipei using this to protect the territory’s Kinmen and Matsu Islands from coercive behaviour by Chinese ships.
Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Craig Macartney said the collaboration “will help Taiwan better monitor maritime activity and vessel movements, including their own fleets, leading to more effective and targeted enforcement actions” against fishing misconduct.
Harry Tseng, Taiwan’s representative in Canada, said the pact with Ottawa “highlights the shared commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”
