Foreign Affairs committee  I couldn't speculate. I think it's shorter than what we had originally thought. There was a prevailing conventionalism not too long ago that time was on Taiwan's side. That is, if Taiwan could maintain its democratic course and China continued to economically modernize, this woul

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll make two comments. The first is that I am more worried for Taiwan than ever before. The second is that, under Xi Jinping, I don't think there is any room or any prospect for the PRC to make a concession on Taiwan. Hence, I think about ways in which political reform may becom

Foreign Affairs committee  That's going to be very difficult for a whole host of reasons. The claims that China's making over the South China Sea have obviously been ruled unlawful and not in compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The challenge, too, is that the PRC's claims to the Sout

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of...?

Foreign Affairs committee  In Taiwan, I think the CTOT has done an extraordinary job. Given the constraints within the international space, I think the Canadian trade office in Taipei has done an extraordinary job of establishing these kinds of linkages within civil society, working relentlessly in terms o

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. I think eight years ago I would have thought.... In looking at the tea leaves at the time, certainly there was a school of thought, in looking at Xi Jinping and his consolidation of power, that this was a preamble for potentially a kind of political liberalization that we

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. I think Canada should be unequivocally supportive of Taiwan. At the same time, I think Canada should not look to isolate China. There is a possibility to be able to entertain both. I think isolating China will not result in a positive outcome.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's absolutely ridiculous that Taiwan has continually been excluded from discussions around the WHO table. If we've learned anything from SARS, it's that despite all of the disadvantages Taiwan had to suffer in 2003, they somehow managed to weather that storm and indeed

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a terrific question, actually. I wanted to go back, if I might, on the question of strategic ambiguity just for a moment. The concept worked very well for the time, because it really was a way of talking about strategic engagement. When strategic ambiguity first emerged i

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, I think that the Chinese government is going to be much more strategic about this. They're learning about what's happening in Ukraine so I think there's definitely reason for pause, though I don't think that this in any way has softened the Beijing government's resolve to se

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll be very brief. Over the past 20-plus years in which I've had the privilege of observing elections and being engaged with scholarship on and in Taiwan, it is becoming unequivocally clear to me that people in Taiwan have increasingly less and less appetite for any prospects of

Foreign Affairs committee  You certainly see that in the survey data. I think that the protests of 2014 were an excellent display of democracy at work and a young democracy working out its rules of the game. Indeed, I think that younger Taiwanese, just in terms of the generational differences and the cohor

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. This is truly an honour and privilege for me to be able to speak in front of this committee. I'm actually Zooming in from Accra, Ghana, right now, so you'll have to forgive me if the connection is a little wonky at times. I will do my best. Let me begin by