People ride motorbikes during rush hour in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on Sept. 9.Ann Wang/Reuters
Ex-CSIS director Richard Fadden is leading a contingent of former Canadian security and defence officials on a trip to Taiwan next week in an effort to deepen informal relations with the self-governed island as it grapples with increasing efforts by China to diplomatically isolate the Asian democracy.
The visit, sponsored by the Taiwanese government, represents a substantial level of engagement between Taiwan and a group of private citizens who previously held senior jobs in the top echelons of Canada’s government, security agencies and military.
Canada and Taiwan do not have official diplomatic relations but the territory, claimed by Beijing, has been building robust informal relations with the West in order to protect itself. The U.S. has repeatedly said China is aiming to have the capacity to capture and annex Taiwan by 2027.
Mr. Fadden is a former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who also served as national security adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. He said those accompanying him to Taiwan will include Martin Green, former assistant secretary for intelligence assessment with the Privy Council Office; Gordon Venner, former associate deputy minister with the Department of National Defence; retired lieutenant-general Guy Thibault, former vice-chief of the defence staff; retired vice-admiral Mark Norman, former commander of the Royal Canadian Navy; retired lieutenant-general André Deschamps, former commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force; as well as Ian Burney, former Canadian ambassador to Japan.
Guy Saint-Jacques, a former ambassador to China, said to his knowledge such a high-powered group has never made such a trip to Taiwan and he presumes even if they won’t admit it, the Trudeau government has quietly okayed this visit. “I would say that there’s more tacit support for Taiwan in Ottawa than there used to be before the Meng Wanzhou crisis,” he said.
In late 2018, the Chinese government locked up two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, in apparent retaliation for Ottawa’s earlier arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request. The dispute chilled relations between Canada and China, and Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor were ultimately jailed nearly three years in a case of what one Liberal cabinet minister termed hostage diplomacy.
Mr. Fadden said the visit will include meetings with representatives of Taiwan’s National Security Council, its Ministry of National Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, which functions as Canada’s de-facto embassy there.
“The people that I’m going with all share the view that Taiwan’s continued existence as an independent, or relatively independent, democracy is important to all of us – which is why we’re going,” Mr. Fadden said.
The Taiwan government is underwriting the trip but Mr. Fadden said “the Taiwanese have made it very clear that there’s no commitment” on the part of him or the other Canadians. “They’re hoping we’ll learn something, and they’re not asking us to do anything specific. So that was our starting point,” he said.
Canada has not recognized Taiwan as a sovereign state since 1970, when former prime minister Pierre Trudeau switched diplomatic relations to the Communist-led People’s Republic of China on the mainland. But Canada never accepted China’s claim on Taiwan, saying in the 1970 communiqué on the establishment of diplomatic relations with the PRC that it “takes note of this position.”
China has ramped up efforts to isolate Taiwan from the international community, including denying it the chance to participate in global bodies such as the World Health Organization’s regular assemblies, and persuading those countries that recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country to sever relations. In 2000, Taiwan had diplomatic relations with 29 member states of the United Nations, as well as the Holy See, and today the number is down to 12 and the Vatican.
The Chinese Communist Party, which seized power in China in 1949, has never ruled Taiwan, where nationalist forces retreated after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong more than 70 years ago. Beijing’s authoritarian rulers, who consider Taiwan a breakaway province and have never renounced using force to annex the territory, have stepped up pressure on Taipei in recent years.
Taiwan rejects China’s claim on its territory and said it should be up to Taiwan’s 24 million people to decide their future.
Taiwan is Canada’s 12th-largest trading partner and its sixth largest in Asia. Total merchandise trade with Taiwan in 2022 was $12-billion, according to the Department of Global Affairs.
Mr. Fadden said he believes Canada should be more assertive in building ties.
China claims the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and the PRC as inland waters but today it serves as a major global shipping corridor, with 44 per cent of the world’s container fleet moving through it in 2022, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. About 90 per cent of the world’s advanced semi-conductor manufacturing capacity is located in Taiwan.
“We do not wish, I think, to unnecessarily antagonize the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Fadden said. “I tend to think that with our ‘One China’ policy, we’re being a bit timid and that we could do more.”
Other members of the Taiwan trip next week include Edison Stewart, a former assistant deputy minister with the Department of National Defence; James Boutilier, a former special adviser in international engagement with Canada’s Maritime Forces Pacific Headquarters; Ian Brodie, who once served as chief of staff to Stephen Harper when he was prime minister; and Jonathan Berkshire Miller, director of the foreign affairs, national defence and national-security program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a think tank.
Mr. Saint-Jacques said this visit sends a very important message that we care about Taiwan. Still, he predicted, Beijing will protest it. “In China, they don’t make a distinction between current officials and former officials.”
Mr. Thibault, chair of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, said the high-level group is not bringing any message from the Canadian government to Taiwan.
But he said the information that they pick from speaking to Taiwanese political, foreign and defence officials will be shared when they return to Ottawa.
“There has been no endeavour to use this trip to carry messages,” Mr. Thibault said. “We may come back with some fresh ideas to add to the thinking of what could be done in each of the aspects of national security.
“It would be a shame if we didn’t come back and use our collective experience with the visit to add our voice to consideration on how we can move forward with the government’s Indo Pacific strategy.”