Der konservative Parlamentsabgeordnete Michael Chong besucht Taiwan, um den Präsidenten zu treffen und sich damit gegen China zu stellen

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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 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, the Taiwanese president, on Wednesday.

Mr. Chong, who’s 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.

Mr. Wang, in an interview with the Globe and Mail April 30, warned that a new strategic partnership that Prime Minister Mark Carney struck with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be damaged if Canada sent any more warships through the Taiwan Strait or allowed any more MPs or senators to visit the small democracy.

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 reached a breakthrough after a painful trade war and years of frosty relations.

China is trying to increasingly 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.

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.

The People’s Republic of China (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 this trip is financed with his own money.

He said Taiwan is an important partner for Canada. In recent years the island was Canada’s 15th largest trading partner and the six biggest 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.

“During my visit to Taiwan, I will be meeting with Dr. Lai Ching-te, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Jen-Ni Yang, Minister and Trade Representative, and Dr. Chen Ming-chi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. I will also be meeting with officials at the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei.

“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 said.

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 and Mail 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.

I like this move. We should be showing solidarity with Taiwan instead of placating to China’s demands.

GOD BLESS CANADA!

Good. I don’t consider myself partisan one way or the other and watching our country fall into desperate deals with China is not helping my existential dread, lol

I generally support Carney and can’t stand Poilievre, and I like this move. As an opposition MP, that gives the government plausible deniability. As a Conservative, this raises Chang’s profile which is good because they need ditch PP and get a real leader and he would be a good one.

✊🏼

Look, no matter whether you agree or disagree with this politically, why are these Conservative MPs acting outside our government efforts?

Good for Chong.

He should be leader of the Conservatives.

> 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.”

As a private citizen Chong can do whatever he likes within the law. But he represents only himself, so the second statement is inappropriate and he should be admonished for the over-reach.

Chong W

Everyone here seems to believe that this is going against the current government. Conservative or not this MP is likely not acting without the support of the government and has directives that are being fulfilled to the betterment of Canada.

This likely is viewed negatively by China and why an MP of the opposition party is being assigned.

I know it won’t happen, but I can imagine Michael Chong one day crossing the floor to join Carney’s Liberals. His views are more aligned with him than they are with Poilievre’s far-right Reform-style party. Not too many Progressive Conservatives left nowadays in the Conservative Party.

It doesn’t matter what party Chong plays for, this country is racist against Chinese people.

So a conservative MP took a personal trip to Taiwan. Oh wow that’s special. 😂

This is fruitless virtue signalling and an attempt to sabotage our relationship with China to hurt Carney. This is partisan politics. America can’t do shit about China. They have already lost to Iran. Canada sure as hell isn’t doing anything. This is pointless.