I will answer your question and, if I may, I will also pick up on some of what Ms. Alepin said about China's possible reaction.
Our current relationship with Taiwan is somewhat complicated. The agreement was in fact signed by the two offices. The staff of the Canadian office in Taipei are from the government of Canada. They are Canadian public servants, primarily from our department, but also from other departments. Similarly, the staff of the Taipei office in Ottawa are from Taiwan's foreign affairs department. So they are officials from the two governments.
As to the personnel, there is not much difference. There is, however, a legal difference owing to the fact that it is an arrangement and that it is signed by the offices. These offices are organizations that have already been mutually accepted. In our case, we accept the presence of the Taiwanese office in Ottawa. This office has a certain legal status in Canada as an organization working in Canada. On the other hand, we do not accept the Taiwanese foreign affairs department in the same way. This is why the document was signed by the two offices. From a strictly legal point of view, there is a difference.
As to China's reaction, I have two comments.
First, I would say Taiwan is a bit different from Hong Kong. The situation is always a bit trickier with Taiwan. From China's point of view and ours, Hong Kong is indeed part of the People's Republic of China. The only difference is that it is a separate customs territory.
Moreover, China accepts that Hong Kong and Taiwan are members of APEC, a multilateral organization whose members are economic members rather than countries. So China has already accepted the principle that Hong Kong and Taiwan can operate in a multilateral, international context as economies rather than countries.
In both cases, we already have that type of agreement with China. The change with Hong Kong is really a technical change. As to Taiwan, we are proceeding with something that we already have in place with China. In our opinion, China's reaction should not be a problem. If we had done the opposite, if we had made an arrangement with Taiwan first, that might have caused a problem.