Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The country has donated 1.7 million masks and other PPE items to Canada. (Photo courtesy of Pexels)

Taiwan’s top representative in Canada says he hopes Ottawa will send a cabinet minister to visit the country as it seeks to boost ties with Western nations in the face of increasing pressure from China.

The self-governing island is fresh off of a presidential election last weekend, which saw the independence-leaning leader Tsai Ing-wen re-elected with a strong mandate of more than half the vote. Since Tsai took office in 2016, she’s faced pressure from China due to fears of her edging Taiwan closer towards formal independence, according to Reuters.

In the face of the current political climate in Taiwan, voters on Jan. 11 chose to back Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party, which pledged to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty against perceived threats from Beijing. With time back on her side, Tsai is now seeking to enhance ties with the United States and other democratic states.



Representative Winston Wen-yi Chen, of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada — Taiwan’s de-facto embassy in Ottawa — believes that Canada should foster closer ties to his country and consider a high-level exchange, which he says can offer a stepping stone to future cooperation.

“Over the years, different countries, even if they didn’t have formal ties with Taiwan, would send a senior minister. It happened very often,” he said in an interview with iPolitics on Wednesday.

“If it can happen in other countries, why not with Canada?”

READ MORE: Taiwan leans on Canada and others to back last-minute entry to UN aviation summit

Since 1971, Canada has been without official relations with Taiwan’s government due to the ‘One China’ policy — in which mainland China is formally recognized as the only representative of China on the world stage. Taiwan’s state was created by Nationalist forces who fled to the island, in defeat from the Communists at the end of the Chinese Civil War. Still, Canada has a trade office in Taipei, its capital.

If Canada were to send a minister to Taiwan, the move would run the risk of upsetting Beijing amid already fractious relations between Canada and China. Two Canadians are currently detained by the country on espionage accusations, having been arrested shortly after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was brought into custody on Canadian soil at the behest of American officials.

The last federal minister to visit Taiwan was Industry Minister John Manley in September 1998. At the time, Beijing criticized the trip, but Manley insisted on its value. “Canada has very important economic interests here,” Manley told reporters in Taipei, per the Globe and Mail at the time.

More recently, in 2015, Ontario Liberal MPPs pulled out of an all-party visit to Taiwan, claiming a scheduling issue. Three Progressive Conservative MPPs and one New Democrat, Jagmeet Singh — who was serving as a provincial politician at the time — went ahead with the visit in their absence.

Chen said a high-level exchange makes sense given Canada and Taiwan’s close people-to-people relationship and trade ties, which he presented as natural reasons for diplomatic engagement. About 200,000 people of Taiwanese descent live in Canada, and about 60,000 Canadians live on the island.



Chen believes that both countries are “like-minded,” sharing the same appreciation for fundamental rights, democracy and rule of law. Taiwan is currently Canada’s 13th-largest trading partner.

“Taiwan is a hub, a gateway to the Asia-Pacific market,” he said, adding that he hopes Canada can back its entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He pitched Taiwan’s economy, with its buzzing tech industry, as an appropriate partner for Canada, due to Canada’s natural resources and educated citizenry.

Tsai’s re-election last Saturday dealt a blow to Beijing, which is suspected of flooding disinformation into Taiwan in order to harm the incumbent leader’s prospects in the electoral race and herald in a more sympathetic figure, according to several media reports from outlets such as the New York Times.



Taiwan’s government attempted to curb the threat through the help of citizen groups, state ministries, political parties and even Facebook, in order to flag fake news, debunk rumours and trace the origin of disinformation to its source in real-time. Videos, graphics and memes were developed and circulated by quick-response teams, aiming to be out within hours of incorrect information hitting social media.

“We’re literally at the forefront of democratic innovations,” Taiwan’s digital minister, Audrey Tang, said during an interview in Taipei with foreign media outlets including iPolitics in August. Tang said at the time that Taiwan’s anti-disinformation model could be exported to other democratic countries facing its own challenges with false information.

Global Affairs Canada quietly issued a statement of congratulations on Jan. 11 to Taiwan for holding elections. Asked whether Canada shares Chen’s hope to increase dialogue between both countries at senior levels, departmental spokesperson Guillaume Bérubé told iPolitics that “Canada continues to maintain unofficial but valuable people-to-people, trade and investment ties with Taiwan.”

He said Canada and Taiwan held their 15th annual Canada-Taiwan Economic Consultations at the “senior officials level” in Ottawa in November 2019.

READ MORE: Canadians increasingly skeptical of boosting trade with China, poll finds

Recent polls from the Angus Reid Institute suggest the Canadian public is souring on boosting ties with Beijing, a change that runs the possibility of making Taiwan a more appealing place for diplomatic relations.

Tsai, in her victory speech last weekend, said she hopes the international community will give Taiwan a “fair opportunity to participate in international affairs.” Chen added to iPolitics that, despite what he sees as China’s efforts to isolate Taiwan, he believes there is flexibility within the One China policy.

“Some political pressure from China prevents friends to (have) more engagement, that is the truth. But we find other avenues to have even more cross-country cooperation with our friends.”

-With files from Kirsten Smith

Follow @jolsonlim