Why America Must Defend Itself From The China-Canada Alliance

China’s infiltration of Canada has become dangerously widespread, presenting a major threat, and the U.S. has every reason to reevaluate its policies toward its northern neighbor.

Janet Levy | Am Thinker | March 11, 2026

Last week, The Bureau revealed that in 2020, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) visited a lab belonging to Bobby Shah, also known as Bahman Djebelibak, a Vancouver businessman sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for links to a Chinese drug syndicate. Worse, a senior RCMP officer emailed Shah a recipe for fentanyl production.

Shah’s company, Valerian Labs, is the only Western node connected to a Chinese fentanyl trafficking network. However, it remains unclear whether the RCMP is investigating Shah or plans to file charges. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has been monitoring Shah since 2023, has criticized the RCMP for stonewalling.

Questions have naturally arisen about Canada’s efforts to combat narcotics, especially involving China. The Shah case highlights Canada’s complicated connection with communist China, partly stemming from a history of anti-American sentiment. Becoming a trading partner with China was viewed as a way to lessen economic reliance on the U.S., reduce its influence on foreign policy, and discover new markets.

But any effort to create a new national identity that overlooks geography, history, and inherent ideology is risky. Especially when cozying up to communist China, which aims for global dominance with clear focus, long-term strategy, and sneaky execution.

In Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War Against Canada, Dennis Molinaro, a former Canadian national security analyst, uses recently declassified documents to detail China’s covert operations in Canada: interference in politics and policy, espionage, theft of intellectual property, and suppression of Chinese immigrants.

It all started in 1968 when Pierre Trudeau, a sympathizer of communism, became prime minister. He was targeted even before taking office: he first visited China in 1949, the year the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won the civil war, and again in 1960 with journalist Jacques Herbert. They authored a book praising communism — Two Innocents in Red China — after a guided tour that kept them from witnessing the devastating famine and the brutal takeover of Tibet.

Not surprisingly, within two years of becoming prime minister, he recognized China, convinced that it would become a communist utopia. Ordinary Canadians might have seen his decision as a way to promote peace during the Cold War and balance the threat of the Soviet Union. But the Chinese clearly saw it differently: a relationship with Canada was a way to force the U.S. to accept Beijing’s legitimacy and to gain a major role in the global order.

Leftist France was the first to recognize the CCP-led Chinese government, in 1964; in 1970, Canada followed suit, with Trudeau leading a Liberal Party government. But even before that, in 1965, as a newly elected member of Parliament, Trudeau believed that if Canada engaged with China, “it would be harder for the Americans to stop us,” according to Molinaro.

Molinaro’s book cites documents suggesting Trudeau might have been the first prime minister targeted by China. His actions clearly support this: while acknowledging China, he cut ties with Taiwan; he condemned the Vietnam War; and he aimed for Canada to diversify trade away from the U.S.

Meanwhile, CCP operatives cultivated academics and politicians to favor China in Canada and the U.S. The influence operations were funded by jade and narcotics smuggling into Toronto and Montreal. Molinaro says Canadian officials chose “deliberate blindness” even though they knew the CCP was interfering with Canadian-Chinese communities, and the government ignored China’s human rights abuses in Tibet and against its own people. In 1971, Canada was among 76 countries that voted to admit China to the U.N., while the U.S. and 34 others opposed its entry. Taiwan was summarily expelled.

For the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, China sought and received Canada’s assistance to gain recognition as the ‘One China.’ Taiwan was barred from participating under the name “Republic of China,” prompting its athletes to boycott the event. Ottawa supported China for the Olympics despite knowing that the CCP was using Canadian embassies and consulates in the U.S. as spy stations. (It wasn’t until 1979 that China was permitted to open liaison offices in the U.S.)

Trudeau continued to provide aid to China, using it as an incentive to boost trade. By 1980, China replaced Taiwan as a member of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 1981, Ottawa launched a five-year aid-for-trade program worth $75–100 million in federal funding. Such Canadian help played a significant role—along with Deng Xiaoping’s gradual shift toward a socialist market economy—in transforming China into an economic giant.

Even after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when many countries imposed sanctions on trade with China, Canada strengthened its business ties with China. In 1993, Prime Minister Jean Chretien led a trade delegation to Beijing despite knowing that the CCP was connected to criminal gangs and was harassing pro-democracy students in China and Canada.

Molinaro explains how Ottawa expanded its trade relations with China to include defense and military exchanges. In 1994, Chinese Vice Premier Zou Jiahua was secretly taken on a tour of a Canadian nuclear facility, followed by the sale of two nuclear reactors in 1996. Canada had no qualms about aiding a country known for human rights abuses and a poor environmental record. It also did not hesitate to help Pakistan fix a reactor in Karachi in 1992, even though it had ended nuclear cooperation with Pakistan in 1976. By 1998, Pakistan was a nuclear power. Pro-democracy and environmental activists protested but were ignored.

Describing a deal to sell spy planes with Israeli surveillance equipment to China, Molinaro says he cannot confirm whether the sale took place but cites it as evidence that Canada was willing to do anything for China. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper did aim to shift relations with China, canceling bilateral engagement and focusing on human rights. However, when actions by pro-CCP groups reduced political support, he found it practical to open six trade offices in China.  He also allowed China to establish a consulate in Montreal, and pledged to cooperate on aerospace, telecom, and pharmaceuticals.

China is notorious for cyberattacks and espionage, but Canada doesn’t seem to care. Chinese hackers compromised data at Nortel, a telecom and networking equipment manufacturer, stole its technology, and took control of entire computers. However, after Nortel’s bankruptcy, the Canadian Department of National Defense moved its staff into the company’s headquarters despite reports that it was bugged. Given that Canada is a Five Eyes member, this is especially concerning to the U.S.

China is probably the world’s biggest technology thief: NSA director Keith Alexander describes its theft as “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history.” China has stolen vacuum technology from Dyson, trade secrets for the color white from DuPont, C-17 aircraft designs, files on the F-35, and information on deadly viruses. But Canadian universities receive $50 million in research funds from Huawei, a known Trojan horse for the CCP, and work with China’s National University of Defense Technology, which is blacklisted by the U.S. as a security risk.

The 47 Confucius Institutes in Canada, now known as Centers for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC), promote China’s image and suppress criticism of its policies. Through these institutes and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), overseen by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the CCP fights against the “five poisons”: support for Taiwan, Tibetan self-determination, the Uighurs, the Falun Gong, and pro-democracy movements. Canada has failed to protect its Chinese communities from repressive UFWD actions such as surveillance, illegal arrests and deportations, and threats to relatives in China.

In Under Assault, Molinaro argues that China’s infiltration of Canada has become dangerously widespread and presents a major threat. The U.S. has every reason to reevaluate its policies toward its northern neighbor, with which it shares the world’s longest undefended border.