Conservative MP Michael Chong rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on April 14.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
A Canadian MP has arrived in Taiwan to meet President Lai Ching-te in defiance of a recent warning from China’s ambassador against further trips to the self-governed island by Parliamentarians from Canada.
Beijing considers the democracy of 24 million people a breakaway province despite the fact that China’s governing Communist Party has never ruled the territory since it took power more than 76 years ago.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong arrived in Taipei, the seat of Taiwan’s government, on Sunday and is scheduled to meet with Mr. Lai on Wednesday.
The MP undertook the trip himself without any direction from Prime Minister Mark Carney‘s government, though he did notify the government about his travel plans last Thursday. He is personally paying the cost of the visit.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa condemned Mr. Chong’s trip. In a statement, it said the visit and meetings with Taiwanese officials constitute a signal of support for Taiwan independence.
The embassy said Taiwan is a core interest for Beijing and that the Chinese government rejects what it regards as external interference.
Mr. Chong, who has served as a Member of Parliament for more than two decades, said in a statement he made the voyage to Taiwan, 160 kilometres off the coast of China, to push back against a recent warning by China’s envoy to Canada, Wang Di.
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Mr. Wang, in an interview with The Globe and Mail on April 30, warned that a new strategic partnership that Mr. Carney struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be damaged if Canada allowed any more MPs or senators to visit the small democracy or sent more warships through the Taiwan Strait, something the Canadian Navy has done frequently in the past decade.
The ambassador appeared to be laying out expectations for Canada’s behaviour as the two countries attempt to build on a truce reached in January, 2026, when Mr. Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a breakthrough after a painful trade war and years of frosty relations.
China is increasingly trying to diplomatically isolate Taiwan in an effort to take over the island. While few countries have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Western countries have built robust unofficial ties to the island.
The Chinese ambassador in his interview last month with The Globe did not distinguish between MPs with the governing Liberal Party and opposition parties, including the Conservatives. He said all should stop visiting.
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.
In its Sunday statement, the Chinese Embassy said Beijing firmly opposes any form of diplomatic relations between Canada and Taiwan, including any official exchanges with Taiwanese officials.
The diplomatic mission urged Canadians to abide by these rules, saying this is an inviolable red line for Beijing and warned against interfering in China’s internal affairs.
The Canadian government on Sunday defended Mr. Chong’s right to take the trip to Taiwan.
“The independence of Parliament is a pillar of Canada’s democracy, and Members of Parliament and Senators have a longstanding practice of visiting Taiwan,” Global Affairs spokesperson Renelle Arsenault said in a statement.
Ms. Arsenault repeated Canada’s long-standing policy of opposing any force being used to coerce change in relations between Taiwan and China.
“Canada opposes any unilateral actions that threaten the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” she said.
Ms. Arsenault said Canada’s policy towards China has not changed.
But, she added “within that framework, Canada and Taiwan maintain significant economic, cultural, and people-to-people ties.”
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 and other officials. This happened shortly before Mr. Carney’s meeting in Beijing with Mr. Xi. The MPs said they were returning home three days early “informed by advice from” the Canadian government.
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The PRC bristles against what it considers foreign interference and has reserved the right to use force to annex Taiwan, where nationalist forces fled after they lost a civil war to the communists.
Canadian MPs and senators visit Taiwan regularly on trips paid for by the Taiwanese government – and have done so since at least the 1980s. The trips have normally included meetings with Taiwan’s government leaders.
Mr. Chong said Taiwan is an important partner for Canada. In recent years, the island was Canada’s 15th largest trading partner and the six largest in Asia.
Mr. Chong said this trip to Taiwan has two purposes: “to show solidarity with a democracy at the front lines of intimidation from the People’s Republic of China” and to “assert Canadian sovereignty in the face of a warning from the PRC’s ambassador to Canada about Canadian MPs travelling to Taiwan.”
He said he also plans to meet minister Jen-Ni Yang, chief trade negotiator at Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, as well as Chen Ming-chi, deputy minister of foreign affairs, and officials at Canada’s trade office in Taipei.
Mr. Chong said Canada has to challenge China’s attempt to hamper Canada-Taiwan ties.
“To remain silent and comply in the face of intimidation is to accommodate this behaviour, further embolden authoritarianism and further weaken democracy,” he said. “It’s not simply sufficient to proclaim sovereignty; sovereignty must be exercised.”
“Canada is a sovereign and independent country. We do not take direction from a foreign government about where Canadian MPs can travel internationally, and where Royal Canadian Navy warships can transit in international waters,” Mr. Chong added.
China has been taking steps to cut off Taiwan from the international community, including denying it the chance to participate in global bodies, such as the World Health Organization’s regular assemblies, and persuading countries that still recognize the island as a sovereign country to sever relations. In 2000, Taiwan had official diplomatic relations with 29 member states of the United Nations, as well as the Holy See; today the number has dropped to 11 and the Vatican.
Last week, Defence Minister David McGuinty declined to say whether Canada would continue sending warships through the Taiwan Strait after the warning from China’s ambassador.
Mr. McGuinty cited operational security as a reason for not answering.
“Those are operational questions, security questions – I don’t get into that,” he said in an interview Thursday.
The Globe had not asked about the timing or routes of future ship movements, but rather whether Canada would maintain or abandon a policy of transiting through the strait.
Despite declining to discuss Canada’s policy going forward, Mr. McGuinty said he nevertheless regards the waterway between China and Taiwan to be international waters. China, by comparison, considers the Taiwan Strait to be an internal waterway.
From 2018 until the resignation of former prime minister Justin Trudeau last year, Canadian warships transited the Taiwan Strait 11 times – over the objections of Beijing.
Under Mr. Carney’s government, this has happened only once. A Canadian frigate made a single trip, in September, 2025, along with an Australian destroyer.