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it will be up to the courts to decide if a canadian nato intern arrested by belgian authorities on suspicion of spying for china — after receiving security clearances from csis and the rcmp — is guilty.
but it renews concerns about prime minister mark carney’s “strategic partnership” with china on trade, including a secret memorandum of understanding on police cooperation between the rcmp and china’s dangerous ministry of public security.
it’s not as if these concerns are new.
carney described china as canada’s greatest security threat in april 2025.
canada’s foreign interference inquiry, in its final report in january 2025, identified china as “the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting canada’s democratic institutions.”
in august 2019, canada’s national security and intelligence committee of parliamentarians warned the federal government that china was engaging in interference targeting all levels of government — federal, provincial, municipal and indigenous.
carney says expanding our trade beyond the u.s. is vital to our economy, given president donald trump’s tariff policies, and that trading with china does not mean we agree with all of its policies.
but the question is how much foreign interference, transnational repression and industrial espionage is canada willing to endure in hopes of securing increased trade with china, to which we send a mere 4% of our exports, compared to almost 70% to the u.s.?
canada’s warming relations with beijing are also working against the carney government’s military and financial support for ukraine, given china’s increasing role in helping russian president vladimir putin prosecute the war.
writing in the national post, charles burton, a former canadian diplomat in beijing and marcus kolga, a senior fellow at the macdonald-laurier institute, warn this growing russia-china alliance endangers canadian security in the arctic.
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china and russia, they write, “have conducted joint bomber operations near alaska, as well as naval and coast-guard patrols in northern waters … they show growing military co-ordination near north america’s northern approaches.
“russia brings geography, military infrastructure and decades of arctic experience; china brings technology, industrial capacity and capital. their interests differ and distrust remains, but their shared objective of weakening western power is drawing them closer.”
so again, how much canadian security is carney prepared to sacrifice in the hopes of getting more trade with china?
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