Canada Should Normalize Relations With Taiwan to Counter Beijing’s Threats: Report

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks at a ceremony to mark the island's National Day in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei on October 10, 2022. Sam Yeh / AFP via Getty Images

As Beijing ramps up its threats against Taiwan in recent years, Canada needs a renewed strategy that recognizes the self-ruled island and normalizes relations with it, says a new Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) report.

The report, titled “Navigating Canada-Taiwan relations: Why Canada needs a renewed strategy to help safeguard peace in the Taiwan Strait,” was conducted by MLI senior fellow Scott Simon, who argues that though Canada has a diplomatic and trade relationship with Taiwan, much of the attention it receives is driven by its connection to communist-led China.

“High-level political visits to Taiwan should be a normal part of international diplomacy–and would be in the absence of Chinese hostility toward Taiwan,” Simon wrote.

“Taiwan’s democratically elected state maintains formal or substantive diplomatic relations with most of the world, including Canada. But state leaders don’t use usual descriptors for these diplomatic relations because they are coerced by China to use other vocabulary.”

Beijing has increased its aggression toward Taiwan in recent months, including an “impromptu” escalation of military exercises near the island nation in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s one-day visit to the island nation in August this year.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melonie Joly urged Beijing to deescalate tensions at the time, saying that Pelosi’s visit cannot be used as a pretext for China to justify its increasingly assertive actions against Taiwan.

Simon called for integrating a renewed Taiwan policy into the Indo-Pacific Strategy that Joly is mandated to create. The mandate is said to “deepen diplomatic, economic and defence partnerships and international assistance in the region.”

“The Canada-Taiwan relationship has never been merely a subset of Canada-China relations,” Simon wrote.

“Canada has asserted to this day that peace and security in the Taiwan Strait is an international issue rather than, as Beijing would prefer to frame it, an internal Chinese affair that brooks no foreign intervention.”

“Now more than ever the international community needs to continue normal diplomatic, trade, and other relations with Taiwan to demonstrate to China that the world does not accept its strong-arm tactics,” he added.

Recommendations

Simon  provided several recommendations for Canada’s new Taiwan strategy while warning that Beijing’s “increasing intransigence threatens the peace and stability of the region.”

The recommendations include re-asserting that diplomatic, trade, and other normal relations with Taiwan will not be disrupted by China’s coercion; pursuing both official and unofficial means to facilitate discussions with Taiwanese officials and other regional partners; and potentially formalizing elements of the Canada-Taiwan relationship in Canadian legislation.

He also voiced support for Taiwan’s membership in international organizations like the Comprehensive Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

In light of Beijing’s growing aggression, Simon also warned of preparedness against the possibility of increased conflict or war. In response to such a scenario, he recommended potentially forming formal diplomatic recognition of Taiwan to deter China’s aggression.

“A renewed Taiwan strategy as part of a larger Indo-Pacific plan is necessary to maintain the peace and prosperity that we have enjoyed for the past seven decades and hope to bequeath to future generations,” Simon wrote.