Canada should support Taiwan’s sovereignty and democracy, says a new report.
Liberal PM Mark Carney won the federal election this week, but without (yet) securing a parliamentary majority. It is suspected that the Trump administration, imposing tariffs and eyeing up Canada as a future U.S. state, played a big role in the election. According to Scott E. Simon of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), it would be a mistake if North American uncertainty pushed Canada closer to China.
For years, Ottawa has pursued a policy of diplomatic ambiguity, or what the author calls “diplomatic expediency,” over Taiwan’s global status. Instead, it must now publicly distinguish between Canada’s “One-China Policy” since the 1970s and the “One-China Principle” that Communist China “wants to impose on the world”:
Canada has the right to define that policy and determine our own relationship with Taiwan without external interference.
The MLI report also opposes China’s legal strategy of “international lawfare,” designed to block UN support for Taiwan in the event of conflict. It argues Canada’s navy should regularly pass through the Taiwan Strait—international waters under international law—and expand bilateral trade and investment.
While China would see such moves as provocative, strengthening Taiwan could prove an increasingly important bulwark against the West’s major rival.
