FINDING FRIENDS — Ten MPs will get an audience with Taiwanese President TSAI ING-WEN before the week is out. — Who’s in Taiwan: JOHN MCKAY, KEN HARDIE, RANDEEP SARAI, MICHAEL CHONG, JAMES BEZAN, RAQUEL DANCHO, CHERYL GALLANT, STÉPHANE BERGERON, HEATHER MCPHERSON and LINDSAY MATHYSSEN. — What Tsai wants: Military help. That’s what she told three U.S. senators last week. — Middle-power hour: The meeting comes shortly after Tsai’s 10-day international tour that crescendoed with a stop in California to meet with Speaker KEVIN MCCARTHY. It also follows French President EMMANUEL MACRON’s suggestion that Europe should avoid being “America’s followers” by getting entangled in bellicose inclinations over Taiwan. “Europeans cannot resolve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say on Taiwan, ‘watch out, if you do something wrong we will be there’? If you really want to increase tensions that’s the way to do it,” Macron told Les Echos and POLITICO on board COTAM Unité after meeting Chinese President XI JINPING in China. The French president’s comments further cleave Europe and North America’s diverging approaches on engaging Beijing. The government of Taiwan is footing the travel expenses for the Canadian delegation. Liberal MP JUDY SGRO also led an expense-paid parliamentary delegation to Taiwan in the fall, the first since Covid-19 halted international junkets to the island nation. — Photo-op: Five MPs on the House special committee on the Canada-China relationship met with Vice President LAI CHING-TE on Tuesday and gave him a copy of their recent report on bilateral relations. It recommended more visits by parliamentary delegations and nudged Ottawa to “publicly call on the People’s Republic of China to refrain from escalating its military threats” in the Taiwan Strait. China’s embassy in Ottawa slammed the committee’s work, likening it to an act of foreign interference on the issue of Taiwan, calling it a “flagrant provocation to the Chinese people.” Since China started its three-day drill surrounding Taiwan over the weekend, it’s been silence from National Defense Minister ANITA ANAND and Foreign Affairs Minister MÉLANIE JOLY. POLITICO asked Joly’s office to confirm if the government has called on Beijing to abate recent tensions in the Taiwan Strait. “We encourage all parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and maintain open lines of communication to prevent misunderstanding,” said Joly spokesperson ADRIEN BLANCHARD, paraphrasing the last line lifted from an August G-7 statement on Taiwan. — Friends with trip benefits: “Sponsored travel is any travel worth more than C$200 that is not fully paid by the government, a political party, a recognized parliamentary association or by the members,” according to the federal ethics watchdog. The office recently released its list of 2022 sponsored travel, showing 55 trips accepted by parliamentarians. Last year’s top three travel sponsors: → Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA): C$95,865.19 covering trip expenses for seven MPs. CIJA is an active registered lobbying group. → Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada: C$62,270, covering trips for four MPs. The biggest single expense was C$24,410 in transportation expenses for Sgro and her husband, along with staffer ANNA LACHYKHINA. The group’s lobbying registration lapsed in 2019. → Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: C$50,757.96 to cover the expenses of the five-person NDP junket to Berlin back in November. The foundation isn’t registered as an active lobbying group. — More junketing: House Speaker ANTHONY ROTA was spotted in Denmark shaking hands with his counterpart, SØREN GADE, while leading a parliamentary delegation with FRANCIS SCARPALEGGIA, ZIAD ABOULTAIF, MATTHEW GREEN and JULIE VIGNOLA. Like Ottawa Playbook? Maybe you know others who’d like to start the day with a free rush of intel. Point them to this link where sign up is free. | 
