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Participants of an anti-China rally hold red balloons symbolising Chinese missiles targeting the self-ruled island in Taipei on March 18, 2006

Last Spring, Jim Abbott, the Conservative MP for Kootenay-Columbia, created an international ruckus by introducing the so called Taiwan Affairs Act to upgrade Canada’s relations with Taiwan.

The bill called for improved economic, cultural and legal ties with Taiwan while seeking to legitimize official visits from Taiwan.

It opposed China’s use of military force or economic sanctions against Taiwan.

The proposal triggered immediate reaction from Beijing and Canada’s business elite who said the bill if it became law would harm trade ties and infuriate the communist leadership.

But the Conservative MP was stoic and despite the negative reaction even from his own constituents, hogged the international limelight with his Taiwan Affairs Act.

That was last Spring, when the Conservatives were in opposition.

This Spring, the Conservatives are in government and there is nary a peep about Taiwan’s right to recognition or its democracy.

There is nothing on the MP’s website to show the progress of the bill.

Demonstrators attend an anti-China protest in Taipei

People contacted within the party machinery all had the same answer – they did not know.

So what has happened to the Taiwan Affairs Act which was part of the Conservative election platform to "articulate Canada’s core values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, free trade... on the international stage?"

Nothing.

Over the last few weeks, China upped the rhetoric to annex the island triggering mass demonstrations by Taiwanese to protest Beijing’s growing military threat.

"Our future will never be decided by the 1.3 billion people of China," President Chen Shui Bian told the people of Taiwan.

"Taiwan is an independent sovereign state, and its future should be determined by its 23 million people. Taiwanese people oppose annexation and invasion."

Beijing, retaliated by announcing a 14.7 percent increase in its military budget this month, raising it to US$35.3 billion, after aiming more than 700 missiles at Taiwan to keep its democracy movement in check.

Taiwan is in dire need of Canada’s support now.

Canada under former Prime Minister Paul Martin, for reasons never fully explained, signed the One China Policy, endorsing the imperialist aims of non-democratic China over a democratic ally.

Stephen Harper, who took over from him, must now revoke that endorsement of the One China policy.

The Canadian Coalition for Democracies rightly states that Taiwan has never, not even for a day, been part of the People’s Republic of China.

The people of Taiwan have repeatedly voted to remain independent from China in fair and open elections.

Now is the time for Harper to show some international statesmanship by leading Canada towards doing the right thing with Taiwan.

And he can start by dusting off Abbott’s Taiwan Affairs Act.