China condemns Conservative MP’s trip to Taiwan after diplomatic warning – national
China’s embassy in Ottawa is criticizing a trip to Taiwan by Canadian MP Michael Chong, who said the visit will in part “affirm Canada’s sovereignty” after the Chinese embassy warned against future visits by parliamentarians.
“Canada is a sovereign and independent country,” Chong said in a statement on Sunday, the day he arrived in Taipei. “We do not take direction from foreign governments about where Canadian MPs can travel internationally, and where Canadian Navy warships can travel in international waters.”
Chong was talking about the warning made by the Chinese ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, during an interview with The Globe and Mail last month.
Wang warned the strategic partnership announced after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to China’s President Xi Jinping would be harmed if Canada sends more warships through the Taiwan Strait or if other MPs visit Taiwan.
He also did not seem to divide the parties, saying that no members of Parliament should be allowed to visit. Chong is a Conservative Foreign Affairs critic.
China’s ambassador said such visits send “the wrong message of supporting ‘Taiwan independence.’
“The visit of a member of the Canadian Parliament to the Taiwan region and his meetings with officials of the Taiwanese regional authorities seriously violates the one China commitment that Canada adheres to and sends the wrong message of support for Taiwan’s independence. China strongly opposes this,” the embassy wrote in a statement to Global News.
China claims sovereignty over democratic Taiwan and claims control over the nearly 180-kilometer waterway that separates the two sides.
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Canada, like many countries, does not have official relations with Taiwan, but both maintain de facto embassies in each other’s capitals.
Carney announced the first deal with China in January on electric vehicles and canola, Wang’s relationship seems to echo his words.
Michael Kovrig, senior adviser to the International Crisis Group, told Global News that China, by issuing this warning, is trying to be “assertive” and “trying to move red lines.”
“The ambassador is trying to say that you cannot continue doing what you were doing before and if you do that we will be angry with you,” he said. But Kovrig added that Chong is also emphasizing his own position.
“Michael Chong also asserts that no, he does not represent the Canadian government, and he has full authority to visit Taiwan and meet with whomever he likes and none of the Chinese government,” Kovrig said.
Chong, who serves as the Conservatives’ foreign affairs critic, plans to visit with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te while there.
Taiwan remains a point of contention between China and many countries, including Canada, the United States and much of Europe.
The issue arose last week when Xi visited the United States and met with President Donald Trump, who saw the Chinese leader warning Trump that the two countries may clash over the sovereign island if it is not handled properly.
The Trump administration has approved an $11 billion arms package for Taiwan, but has yet to implement it.
The US has long pledged to help the island defend itself in the event of an attack, but Trump has shown ambivalence about Taiwan, raising speculation about whether the president can be persuaded to return US support.
Lai said on Sunday that US arms purchases are “very important obstacles.”
“We thank President Trump for his continued support for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait since his first term, including the continued growth in the scale and amount of arms sales to Taiwan,” he said.
The self-governing island and the “principle” of one China are considered a “political cornerstone and an inexorable red line” of relations between Canada and China, the ambassador said in a statement.
“We urge Canada to be serious [abide] with its one-China commitment, effectively restrain any words or actions that violate the one-China principle, and refrain from interfering in China’s internal affairs,” the embassy spokesperson wrote.
Chong emphasized in his statement the need to counter the warning.
“Staying silent and complying when they are threatened is in line with this behavior, it also strengthens the dictatorship, and weakens democracy,” said Chong. “It is not enough to declare sovereignty; sovereignty must be exercised.”
–via files from Global News’ Nathaniel Dove, The Associated Press and Reuters
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
