China ‘trying to move the goal posts,’ Michael Chong says

Conservative MP Michael Chong discusses criticism he’s faced from the Chinese Embassy about his visit to Taiwan and his reasoning for going.

OTTAWA — Conservative MP and parliamentary foreign affairs committee vice-chair, Michael Chong says China is attempting to “move the goal posts” by trying to prevent Canadian officials from visiting Taiwan.

Chong, who is also the Conservative foreign affairs critic, is in Taiwan this week to meet with Taiwanese officials, including Lai Ching-te, president of the Republic of China Taiwan. Several delegations of Canadian parliamentarians have travelled to the sovereign territory over the years.

In a statement to CTV News, however, a spokesperson for China’s embassy in Canada said Chong’s visit to Taiwan and meetings with Taiwanese officials “gravely contravene the one-China commitment Canada upholds and sends a wrong message of support for ‘Taiwan independence.’”

The statement also says China “firmly opposes” the trip, and that the “Taiwan question” is one for China alone and “brooks no external interference.”

Chong said his trip is meant both to show solidarity with Taiwan — which he said is facing threats from an authoritarian China — and to assert Canada’s sovereignty by demonstrating no foreign government, namely China, can dictate the travel of Canadian parliamentarians.

“For decades, Canadian MPs from both sides of the aisle have been visiting Taiwan as part of a broader pattern of enhancing two-way relations between Canada and Taiwan,” Chong said in an interview on CTV Power Play with Vassy Kapelos from Taiwan on Wednesday.

“They’re trying to move the goal posts by saying that that travel should no longer take place,” he also said. “My visit here is a declaration that it should take place, and that we can’t allow, as a democracy, an authoritarian state like Beijing to dictate our terms of engagement in the world community.”

Chong says no hesitation to take trip

Kapelos asked Chong whether he hesitated to take the trip to Taiwan, given the federal government’s desire to reset relations between Canada and China after years of tension, and while certain agricultural sectors are benefitting from improved access to Chinese markets.

“No, not at all,” Chong said. “In fact, I think it’s at moments like this it becomes even more important for us to reinforce the status quo and to reinforce what our country stands for.”

“Because if we allow Beijing to move the goal posts, we then are acquiescing to their demands, and that creates a more unstable environment here in the Indo-Pacific region,” he added. “And instability is bad for trade and investment.”

The longtime MP added that to give in to China’s demands would be to “reduce the cost to Beijing of unilateral action across the Taiwan Strait.”

And, asked whether he hesitated to take the trip given he and his family have been targeted by China in the past, Chong again said: “No.”

“I’ve got the privilege of being elected to high office, of being a member of Parliament in the Parliament of Canada, (and) that gives me the ability to be a voice for the voiceless,” Chong said. “There are countless citizens in democracies around the globe that are facing transnational repression, that are suffering in silence because of the threats coming from authoritarian states.”

Chong said he told the federal government about his plans to visit Taiwan and meet with its officials ahead of time and that they issued a statement of support.

Speaking to reporters on a video call from her visit to Estonia on Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Canada and Taiwan have a long history of people-to-people and commercial ties, and of travelling delegations.

She also pointed to “successive Canadian governments” respecting the One China policy, which states there is only one Chinese government.

“That policy remains unchanged,” Anand said. “It is within that framework that Canada and Taiwan maintain a relationship.”

She also said “the independence of Canada’s Parliament is a pillar of Canada’s democracy,” when asked about China’s condemnation of the trip, and whether China should dictate the travel of Canadian parliamentarians.

“At the same time, our foreign policy does operate within the framework of the One China policy,” she also said.

With files from CTV News’ Rachel Hanes and Luca Caruso-Moro