With Ottawa’s China Pivot, Beijing Expects Canada to Overlook Its Meddling: Former Diplomat

Udumbara Udumbara
Mar 8, 2026 - 10:52 Updated: Mar 8, 2026 - 10:46
0
With Ottawa’s China Pivot, Beijing Expects Canada to Overlook Its Meddling: Former Diplomat

.

China scholar and former Canadian diplomat Charles Burton says Beijing expects that its strategic partnership with Ottawa means Canada will refrain from disrupting its espionage and foreign interference operations.

The partnership suggests Canada “won’t disrupt China’s operations in Canada, and espionage and influence operations, so that they can continue to expand their influence in Canada for the future when, from their point of view, China becomes the dominant power on the planet,” Burton said.

Burton’s comments come after Prime Minister Mark Carney said during a visit to China in January that Ottawa’s relations with Beijing had entered “a new era” and the two countries were in a “strategic partnership.”

Burton said that, from the Chinese point of view, the partnership means that Canadian officials will become “collaborators in China’s geostrategic plans” and will cooperate on the exchange of security information and other areas.

Chinese Diplomats

Burton also said he is concerned that a “high proportion” of Chinese diplomats in Canada are “not engaged in legitimate diplomatic activity, but are in fact coordinating the activities of [China’s] Ministry of State Security and the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department.”
.
A Feb. 11 report from U.S. think tank The Jamestown Foundation found that at least 575 organizations operating in Canada are linked to China’s United Front system.
China expert and Jamestown fellow Cheryl Yu said at a Feb. 11 press conference announcing the report’s findings that the CCP uses its United Front Work Department to “shape political, social, and economic environments in ways that serve the Party’s goal, which is becoming the dominant global power and advancing claims such as the annexation of Taiwan.”
.
Burton noted earlier that the Chinese regime has a large diplomatic footprint in Canada. While Japan has approximately 40 diplomats in Canada and India has about 30, China has 176, he said at a Nov. 27 House of Commons Procedure and House Affairs Committee meeting. Canada doesn’t have “anything like that number of diplomats in China,” he said.

“The question is, are Chinese diplomats so inefficient that they need such large numbers to engage in legitimate diplomatic function, or is it that about 70 percent of them are engaged in espionage, influence operations, harassment of Canadians of Chinese origin, and other things which are not consistent with their diplomatic function?” Burton said.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told MPs during a Foreign Affairs and International Development Committee meeting on Nov. 27 that all diplomats must respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states that diplomats cannot interfere in the internal affairs of host countries.

She said Canada “will never tolerate any form of foreign interference or meddling in our democracy.”

.

Dean Baxendale, publisher, speaks at an event “Celebrating 440 Million Who Have Quit the Chinese Communist Party” on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 22, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

.

China Has Authoritarian Partners

Dean Baxendale, CEO of the China Democracy Fund and Optimum Publishing International, told The Epoch Times that Ottawa’s “strategic partnership” with Beijing is “absurd” given that China’s other strategic partners are authoritarian states.

Burton and Baxendale were attending a forum at the University of Ottawa on Feb. 25 on Burton’s latest book, “The Beaver and the Dragon: How China Out-Manoeuvred Canada’s Diplomacy, Security, and Sovereignty,” published by Optimum Publishing.

“The only strategic partners of China are Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba—all authoritarian states,” Baxendale said. “We’re having a strategic partnership, and we’re doing a [memorandum of understanding] that is going to share data information between law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”

“The absurdity of that on its face should speak for itself.”

He said Canada’s allies in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance “will definitely think this is a crazy action by the Canadian government on this front.”

During Carney’s visit to China, Ottawa signed an agreement with Beijing on law enforcement cooperation between the RCMP and China’s ministry of public security.

The Conservatives have criticized Ottawa’s decision to keep details of the agreement confidential, saying the accord should at least be available for parliamentarians to review.
The Tories have also voiced concern about Ottawa making a deal with Beijing when the Chinese regime has been known to pose a security threat to Canada.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Ottawa has agreed to cooperate with Beijing to diversify its trade relationships away from the United States, and that law enforcement agencies in the two countries would cooperate on issues such as curtailing fentanyl and its precursors coming into Canada.

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, who accompanied Carney on his visit to China, has said Ottawa is engaging with China with “eyes wide open” when it comes to concerns related to foreign interference, espionage, and human rights.
.
Armed policemen patrol during the opening session of the National People's Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5, 2025. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
.

Foreign Influence Registry

Burton also said that in response to foreign interference, espionage, and transnational repression by the Chinese regime, Ottawa needs to appoint a “very strong foreign influence commissioner who would have a high degree of independence,” and would identify proxies of the Chinese regime.

He also said Ottawa needs to strengthen the ability of the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to counter the influence activities of the Chinese regime involving diaspora communities in Canada.

The Liberal government announced in late January that it intended to appoint Anton Boegman, a former B.C. chief electoral officer, to the position of foreign influence commissioner.
Boegman told MPs of the House of Commons procedure and House affairs committee on Feb. 26 that his previous experience makes him well-suited to fulfilling the mandates of the foreign influence transparency office, and to build partnerships and information-sharing pathways with law enforcement and different agencies, such as CSIS, to apply the registry’s rules.

Boegman’s nomination came more than 18 months after Parliament passed Bill C-70, which allowed for the creation of a foreign influence registry to track individuals in Canada acting on behalf of foreign states, as well as the commissioner position.

Conservative MPs have raised concerns that Canada risks being viewed as a “playground for foreign interference” by delaying the registry’s implementation.

Ottawa has said the registry is needed because countries engaging in foreign interference to advance political goals might employ people to act on their behalf without disclosing ties. Bill C-70 was passed amid heightened public awareness of China’s meddling in Canada’s affairs through intelligence leaks in the media and a public inquiry into the matter.

Before Boegman can be formally appointed, the government must consult with opposition parties and Senate leaders, and receive approval by resolution of the House of Commons and Senate.

.

Read More