Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di says there's 'only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.'Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The new “strategic partnership” that Prime Minister Mark Carney struck with China this year would be damaged if Ottawa sends more military vessels through the Taiwan Strait or if Canadian parliamentarians keep meeting with officials in Taiwan, Beijing’s envoy says.
In an interview Thursday, Wang Di, China’s ambassador, said he’s optimistic about warming ties between Beijing and Ottawa but laid down expectations for how Canada deals with the self-governed island of Taiwan going forward.
Canadian MPs and senators visit Taiwan regularly on trips paid for by the Taiwanese government – and have done so for decades. The trips have normally included meetings with Taiwan’s Foreign Minister or its President or Vice-President.
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Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, Canadian warships transited the Taiwan Strait 11 times – over the objections of Beijing – starting in 2018. Under Mr. Carney’s government, a Canadian frigate has made one trip, in September, 2025, along with an Australian destroyer.
The People’s Republic of China considers Taiwan, which lies 160 kilometres off its coastline, to be a breakaway province and the strait between the two an internal waterway. Taiwan, where many from the losing side of China’s civil war fled in 1949, calls itself the Republic of China.
“There is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” Mr. Wang said Thursday in an interview.
“The Taiwan question is a red line that should never be crossed and is at the core interests of China. It constitutes an important political foundation for the bilateral relationship between our two countries.”
In January, two Canadian MPs from the governing Liberal caucus cut short a trip to Taiwan just before the parliamentary delegation they were with was due to meet Taiwanese President Lai Ching-Te and other officials. This happened shortly before Mr. Carney’s meeting in Beijing.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-Te in Taipei in March.Chen Shin-han/The Associated Press
“Canadian parliamentarians – they have official status. So of course, if these parliamentarians conduct any official engagement with the Taiwan side that will be hurtful,” Mr. Wang said.
“Any official engagement between China and Canada should only happen between the People’s Republic of China and Canada,” the envoy said.
Canadian warships often traverse the Taiwan Strait with other Western countries and in particular the United States, effectively challenging Beijing’s claims to what the West regards as an international waterway. The U.S. calls its transits “freedom of navigation” operations.
“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,” the envoy said, referring to Beijing’s policy on Taiwan.
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Canada ended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1970 and instead, under then-prime-minister Pierre Trudeau, recognized the Communist-led People’s Republic of China. Since then, Canada’s One China policy recognizes the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China but at the same time neither challenges nor endorses the PRC position that Taiwan is China’s territory.
January, 2026, was a breakthrough in the long-troubled Canada-China relationship when Mr. Carney reached a truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a painful trade war. The Prime Minister is seeking bigger overseas export markets and new foreign investment to offset economic damage caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs.
During his January meeting with Mr. Xi in Beijing, Mr. Carney agreed to allow nearly 50,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles into Canada at a low tariff rate in return for big reductions in Beijing’s levies on canola seed and a promised elimination of its tariffs on a host of other products.
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More high-level visits are planned this year.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to visit Canada soon – possibly as early as the end of May, two Canadian sources say. But an official date has yet to be set. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The Chinese embassy declined to comment.
Last month, Ottawa publicly rejected a reported proposal involving China’s Leapmotor to reassemble electric vehicles, manufactured in China with Chinese components, in Brampton, Ont. The federal government said it wanted to see cars made in Canada with Canadian components.
Mr. Wang had little comment on the matter, saying China supports “mutually beneficial co-operation” which is “in accordance with the market principles,” but adding that it’s up to Canadian and Chinese businesses to work this out.
Mr. Carney has set out “guardrails” for areas of Canada’s economy that are off limits to Chinese investment, such as artificial intelligence, critical minerals and defence.
Prime Minister Mark Carney shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January.Sean Kilpatrick/Reuters
Asked whether China was satisfied with these restrictions, Mr. Wang said the January agreement listed a number of areas such as agricultural products and energy where investment is invited. “I think if we can do well co-operating in the areas specified in the roadmap, then that will lay a very good foundation for co-operation in more areas in the next phase.”
Cars made by Tesla are expected to get the lion’s share of the EV quota this year – Tesla makes vehicles in China – but Mr. Wang said Beijing hopes that in future years autos made by Chinese companies will make up the bulk of the quota. “I feel that the Canadian side is also really earnest and serious about this.”
Diplomatic relations between Canada and China entered a deep freeze in late 2018 when Beijing locked up two Canadians in retaliation for Ottawa arresting a Huawei executive on a U.S. extradition order. Things worsened as Canada joined other Western countries in criticizing China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority in Xinjiang and a crackdown in Hong Kong.
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One legacy of that period is Canadian MP Michael Chong and the House of Commons subcommittee on human rights remain under sanction by the Chinese government.
These measures persist even though China has lifted sanctions on MPs in the British Parliament, members of the European parliament as well as a subcommittee of the European parliament.
The Chinese measures targeting Mr. Chong and the Commons subcommittee were applied after Canada joined with the U.S., Britain and the European Union in imposing human-rights-related sanctions against officials in Xinjiang.
Mr. Wang said Canada needs to lift these sanctions before Beijing will consider removing its measures.
“We say ‘the knot has to be untied by the one who tied it.’ ”