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And just as Trudeau’s keystone to-do list for Global Affairs Canada is turning out to be a free trade deal with China, a youthful, optimistic and democratic revolt that would be the envy of any genuine, self-respecting liberal has swept away the old Beijing-friendly order in Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its sovereign possession.

It has been a long time coming, but last weekend Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for the first time captured the presidency and an overwhelming majority in Taiwan’s legislature, sweeping away the pro-Beijing Kuomintang (KMT) in a rout that also carried several novice liberal-left “third force” politicians to power.

Things could get very embarrassing, very soon. On any number of contentious fronts, Canada might be required – heaven forbid – to take sides. Already, Beijing is demanding assurances from Ottawa that Canada will mind its manners and refrain from having anything too friendly to do with Taiwan’s new government.

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president-elect (and the first woman to be elected to the office) has made it plain that the last thing she wants is a fight with Beijing. Tsai is certainly not asking Canadians or anyone else to abandon the international community’s diplomatic fiction that Taiwan isn’t a real country, nor is she asking that Taiwan’s scores of trade offices around the world be converted to full-fledged embassies in defiance of Beijing.

But if push comes to shove, whose side will Canada be on?