China Warns Canada over Planned Taiwan Visit by Parliamentarians
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – China warned Canada over a planned visit by Canadian parliamentarians to Taiwan, a week after it emerged that a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians was planning to visit the island later this year.
“We urge the Canadian side to abide by the one-China principle and respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Chinese Embassy in Canada said in a statement late on Tuesday.
“China will take resolute and forceful measures against any country that attempts to interfere with or infringe upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
In October, members of a parliamentary friendship group between Canada and Taiwan, which is not supported financially or administratively by the Canadian parliament, intend to travel to Chinese Taipei. The upcoming trip was made public last week.
Since nearly all nations recognize that China has sovereignty over Taipei, no nation is permitted to treat the island as an independent state or establish diplomatic ties with its secessionist government. This is in accordance with the internationally acknowledged "one-China" policy.
Canadian Liberal MP Judy Sgro claimed when announcing the planned visit that it would focus on trade and that the legislators’ intent was not to disrupt and cause problems for Chinese Taipei or with China.
On Wednesday, Adrien Blanchard, a spokesperson for Canada’s Foreign Ministry, said that China should not use the planned visit by the Canadian parliamentarians as a pretext for what he called military or economic aggression.
“As we have said before, the travel of parliamentarians should not be used as a pretext for escalation or aggressive military and economic actions,” he said, stressing that parliamentary associations and friendship groups made travel decisions independently and that the Canadian government respected the lawmakers’ intent to visit Chinese Taipei.
Canada is closely mimicking the United States by professing adherence to the “one-China” policy but bypassing Beijing in relations with Taipei. Even the planned visit by the Canadian lawmakers and the Foreign Ministry statement came shortly after a similar episode involving US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi stirred controversy when she made a trip to Taipei early this month and met with its president in what had been meant to be an affront to Beijing. China reacted by asserting its sovereignty and holding military drills around Chinese Taipei for several days.
The administration of US President Joe Biden, even though it had reportedly expressed private opposition to Pelosi’s visit, publicly supported her right to travel to the island and warned Beijing against escalation.
The United States provides massive amounts of armaments to Taipei and sails warships through the strategically-sensitive Taiwan Strait, which separates Chinese Taipei from mainland China. US naval forces have been conducting such maneuvers near Chinese waters about once a month.
