Ottawa: A Chinese diplomat’s warning against Canadian parliamentarians visiting Taiwan and Canadian naval vessels transiting the Taiwan Strait has sparked a backlash among Canadian lawmakers. In an interview published Thursday in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, Wang Di, China’s ambassador to Canada, said the “strategic partnership” that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney resumed with China in January would be “damaged” if Ottawa sends more military vessels through the Taiwan Strait or if Canadian parliamentarians continue meeting officials in Taiwan.
According to Focus Taiwan, Wang stated that Canadian parliamentarians have official status, and it would be “hurtful” for them to meet officials in Taiwan. “Any official engagement between China and Canada should only happen between the People’s Republic of China and Canada,” the envoy told the newspaper. “Sending warships through the Taiwan Strait and doing harassment and even provocation, of course, that is in violation of the One China principle, and that also violates China’s territorial integrity,” Wang was quoted as saying.
The Globe and Mail article noted that two Canadian parliamentarians who visited Taiwan in January as part of a delegation cut their visit short just before Carney’s trip to China from Jan. 13-17, the first by a Canadian prime minister in eight years. Wang’s remarks, however, prompted several Canadian parliamentarians to voice support for Taiwan-Canada ties.
Canadian Senate Opposition Leader Leo Housakos of the Conservative Party, who led a delegation to Taiwan in April, shared the interview on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing: “I’m proud to say that I was in Taiwan, meeting with their lawmakers, just a couple of weeks ago. My second visit in recent years. And I will go again.” Conservative Party co-deputy leader Melissa Lantsman, who last visited Taiwan in January, also wrote on X: “You don’t bargain with bullies. Send more MPs. Send more ships. That’s the only response to a ‘warning’ from a ‘strategic partner.'”
Former Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, who attended the Yushan Forum in Taiwan in March, also wrote: “I was very happy to visit Taiwan in March to participate in the @yushanforum and I hope Canadians – including elected officials – never cease to travel to or engage with Taiwan because of intimidation like this.”
In an interview published Friday by Canadian online news outlet iPolitics, Taiwan’s Representative to Canada Harry Tseng also pushed back on Wang’s remarks. “It’s not that you have a bigger voice, and you are the winning side,” Tseng was quoted as saying. “I don’t think this kind of proclamation unilaterally from the Chinese envoy will be a good approach to be honest,” he told iPolitics, while responding to Wang’s call for Canadian parliamentarians to refrain from meeting officials in Taiwan.
Tseng also rejected Wang’s claim that transits by Canadian vessels through the strait violated China’s territorial integrity. “It’s totally untrue according to the International Law of the Sea, your territorial waters is 12 nautical miles out of your coast, and then another 12 nautical miles,” Tseng was quoted as saying. “That’s what they call a contiguous zone.”