Thank you so much. Those are very kind words.
I appreciate this opportunity to appear before this special committee. I know this committee is set up for a special purpose. The fact that you invited me to be one of the witnesses tells me how much concern you have and the importance you attach to relations between Canada and Taiwan. I really hope that the story I shared with you tonight is that things are going on and situations are evolving.
I look forward to future opportunities to engage with every single member—all of you who are here and who are participating online. I honestly think this is a historical juncture. Like-minded countries should work with each other so we can come back with a kind of synergy, because the challenge facing us now is different from before.
Not many people appreciate that the assertive foreign policies of China are going to change a lot of what we have experienced in the past, say, five or 10 years, but this is going to be the case. For example, in Taiwan, we think that over the next five years under Xi Jinping's watch—his third term—he'll probably be pressing further on Taiwan in ways unseen before.
The large exercise in the wake of Nancy Pelosi's visit may come back. As a matter of fact, that exercise, even though it was not declared, is still there. Every day we have dozens of sorties, sometimes close to 100, coming to our ADIZ, the air defence identification zone, intimidating Taiwan. They're flying across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an imaginary median line, and intimidating Taiwan on a daily basis.
I hope this kind of situation will be paid attention to by our Canadian friends, because it won't stop at Taiwan. Taiwan is not a Chinese domestic issue; Taiwan is an international issue. When it comes to Taiwan, we all have to suffer.
I'm not even mentioning Taiwan's chipmaking capacity. We provide most of the chips to important industries in the world. I'm not even talking about that. Of course, that is a very important part, but the fact is that if Taiwan falls, democracy falls, and that will be the ultimate concern of all of us.