Article content continued

Meanwhile their president, Xi Jinping, at the 13th National People’s Congress last March, amended the country’s constitution, enthroning himself for life, copycatting Vladimir Putin, the KGB man in the Kremlin. Unaccountably, Marx never predicted the current dictatorships of Communist emperors as a stage in history.

What should Canada do? Beijing is certainly not the only odious regime we deal with. But do commercial engagements require the abandonment of democratic Taiwan? An answer exists in the a 1970 joint communiqué establishing diplomatic relations between our two countries. It reads, in part, “The Chinese Government reaffirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China. The Canadian Government takes note of this position of the Chinese Government.”

Read that again. All our diplomats did was “take note” of Beijing’s contention that Taiwan is a part of their territory. We did not agree it was, not then, nor since. We are quite free to engage with Taiwan however we wish.

Be they Liberals, Conservatives or New Democrats our politicians often speak of promoting “Canadian values” — supporting democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and human rights. Yet we face powers and principalities deploying considerable geopolitical and geoeconomic leverage, all orchestrated to gutter the liberal-democratic principles so fundamental to the survival of Western civilization. What is to be done? Rather than kowtow to Mammon’s present-day minions, I’d say Canada must stand with those who share our values. Taiwan does.

— Lubomyr Luciuk is a professor at The Royal Military College of Canada. Although he travelled as a guest of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the opinions expressed here are his own.