‘Under Assault’: New Book Details Beijing’s Decades-Long ‘Secret War’ Against Canada

In his new book, former national security analyst and federal policy adviser Dennis Molinaro outlines the Chinese regime’s decades-long effort to infiltrate and influence Canada, including tactics ranging from cultivating aspiring political leaders to espionage, theft, and harassment.

Released on Nov. 18, “Under Assault: Interference and Espionage in China’s Secret War Against Canada” details how the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has for decades targeted Canada for influence and interference with the ultimate goal of spying on and pressuring its rival, the United States. 

“I hope readers will come away from this book knowing far more about China’s secret operations, how and why they have been so successful, and what Canada’s failure to stand up to this threat says about the country.”

The book examines how Canadian leaders have long seen China as a “profitable trading partner,” assuming that deeper engagement would encourage the communist country to become a democratic nation governed by the rule of law.

But “under the rule of the CCP, the PRC would become none of those things,” Molinaro writes. 

“It would instead use Canada to help develop its economy, build its military–especially in equipping the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with modern technology–and accelerate its quest to supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power.”

The author says that long before China’s foreign interference in Canada became widely known, Canada had already fostered a “permissive environment” for espionage and covert influence, partly because its leaders were “blinded by optimism and perhaps even greed” in pursuing trade with the Chinese regime.

China was identified as “the most active perpetrator of foreign interference targeting Canada’s democratic institutions” in the final report of Canada’s public inquiry into foreign interference, known as the Hogue Inquiry, released earlier this year. The report also notes that the CCP views Canada as a “high-priority target.”

“Policy-makers didn’t so much ignore intelligence on China as refuse to accept any intelligence that was at odds with their views,” Molinaro writes. 

Phil Gurski, a retired senior strategic analyst at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), has expressed similar concerns. He previously told The Epoch Times that while Ottawa has been given definitive evidence on Beijing’s hostile activities against Canada, little has been done about it.

“We have more than enough evidence–some of it is intelligence from CSIS, some is just open source information—about what China has been doing to Canada for decades,” he said.

“I spent 32 years of intelligence trying to provide the government with information so they can make better decisions, and yet, we found out through the Hogue Inquiry that that information was ignored.”

Beijing’s Silencing of Dissidents in Canada

Molinaro’s book also explores how Beijing extends its influence into Canada to silence critics and dissidents, often linked to what the regime calls the “five poisons”: democracy activists; Taiwanese, Tibetan, and Uyghur independence activists; and the Falun Gong spiritual practice.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese discipline that combines meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. By 1999, the practice had attracted at least 70 million people across China, according to official estimates at the time. Fearing that Falun Gong’s popularity posed a threat to the CCP’s rule, the regime launched a brutal campaign to eradicate the practice in July 1999, with reports of torture, forced labour, physical and sexual abuse, and forced organ harvesting.

In examining the targeting of Falun Gong, Molinaro describes several tactics used by the regime against the community in Canada. These include efforts to smear its reputation by sending mass fake emails to supportive politicians, and by spreading defamatory claims within local communities.

“Over the years, international human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported on the persecution Falun Gong has experienced, including arbitrary beatings of practitioners and their families, along with detentions and abductions,” Molinaro writes.

The book also examines Beijing’s transnational repression of the Hong Kong diaspora. Molinaro recounts his interview with Canada-based pro-democracy activist Cherie Wong, who reported receiving death and rape threats and being followed by strangers on the street because of her advocacy work.

“For Hong Kongers back home or abroad, Wong explained, surveillance is something people live with daily, and it manifests even in the comfort of their own homes,” Molinaro writes, noting that some dissidents avoid discussing topics deemed sensitive even over dinner, for fear that neighbours or others might overhear and report them to people connected to the regime.

“In the more distant past, family members who had taken issue with the CCP found themselves in labour camps.”

The Uyghur community is another target of Beijing in Canada. Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang face severe suppression by the regime, with an estimated 1 million or more being placed in re-education camps or other detention facilities. Survivors of the camps have described experiences of forced labour, forced sterilizations, political indoctrination, electric shocks, and other forms of abuse during their time in detention.

In the book, Molinaro recounts the experiences of Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Canada-based Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, who has also described incidents seemingly tied to Beijing’s influence abroad.

“Neighbours made him aware of two SUVs that appeared to be watching him day and night, and that came and went when he did ... threatening phone calls often arrive when major public events highlighting the Uyghur plight are about to occur.” Molinaro writes.

“He said it has become ‘routine’ to be monitored openly in Canada by a foreign government, and to see his reports of the incidents to local police or RCMP disappear because he cannot link these occurrences to confirmed PRC agents.”

Ottawa-Beijing Rapprochement

Molinaro’s book comes at a time when Ottawa is working to restore relations with Beijing after several years of diplomatic freeze, and amid tariff tensions with the United States. 

Bilateral relations had been deteriorating since 2018, when China arbitrarily detained Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in apparent retaliation for the detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver on a U.S. extradition warrant. Recent trade tensions have also strained relations, with China imposing steep tariffs on Canadian canola and other agricultural products in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and metals.

Recent revelations of China’s foreign interference and escalating transnational repression operations in Canada had also driven Ottawa and Beijing further apart in their bilateral relations.

Yet, following his first meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said relations were at a “turning point,” and that both countries were looking to cooperate in a “pragmatic and constructive way” in areas such as clean and conventional energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and climate change.

Molinaro warns that, given Beijing’s record of hostile operations against Canada, which he says includes cyberattacks, intellectual property theft, hostage diplomacy, and the harassment of dissidents on Canadian soil, Canada cannot return to “business as usual” with the PRC.

“My concern about rapprochement with the current PRC regime is that it may simply no longer be possible,” he writes. “Canada has been under assault by the CCP for decades, so even when Xi eventually leaves, things are unlikely to change with the CCP still controlling the PRC.”