By Laurence F. Sanford

“O Canada! We stand on guard for thee” is the refrain from Canada’s national anthem. Like so many other nations of the world, including the United States, the “stand on guard” has been lowered to bending over for penetration by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Canada is under attack by the CCP with “unrestricted warfare” on economic, political, military, and cultural fronts.

Vancouver, British Columbia, is a beautiful city on the west coast of Canada where housing and real estate costs have skyrocketed in recent years due to the influx of rich Chinese immigrants wanting to own land. In China, the CCP does not allow for private land ownership. The Chinese, in 2018, laundered over $5 billion through River Rock Casino and other casinos to buy land, houses, businesses, drugs, and luxury automobiles. Many of the Chinese-owned houses are vacant for most of the year, while native Canadians cannot buy homes and are driven out of the housing market due to high prices.

Canadian farmlands are being bought up by Chinese immigrants who ship much of the product to China. To own and to buy farmland is an attraction that can not be duplicated in China. Rapidly rising farmland prices caused by foreign investors make it difficult for young locals to start farms. Many Canadians end up being employees of Chinese investors. The CCP’s financial tentacles are a major factor in farmland funding.

China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States. In 2022, imports from China totaled $100 billion, while exports totaled $29 billion. The largest import segment was telecommunication equipment, while the largest export segment was fossil fuels, followed by agricultural products.

Chinese interference in Canada’s elections will be investigated by a special investigator, announced Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 23, 2023. The turmoil evolves around recent election interference and a 2014 donation of $103,000 to a foundation for Trudeau’s late father, Pierre, who served twice as Canada’s prime minister. One of the donors was Zhang Bin, associated with China’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), a CCP organization advancing China’s interests worldwide. Zhang also made significant donations to the Universities of Toronto and Montreal.

Trudeau has refused to approve a more broad inquiry into Chinese influence on Canadian politics even though, in 2019, he raised “serious concerns” of Chinese interference in Canada with President Xi of China at the G20 meeting in Indonesia.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned Trudeau that China has been targeting Canada with a vast campaign of political interference in elections in order to subvert the democratic process. The subversions include cash payments to select CCP-friendly candidates, placing agents in Members of Parliament (MP) offices to influence policy, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the CCP views as “unfriendly.” Another front is blending into the Chinese diaspora community to mobilize them to influence local elections and support CCP policies. Chinese dissidents living in Canada are “critical threats” and special targets of CCP intimidation and threats.

Confucius Institutes (CIs) are funded through the CCP’s United Front Work Department, which works out of CCP Canadian consulates. CIs purport to be cultural education programs but, in fact, are propaganda tools for influencing Canadians to look favorably on CCP policies. No discussions of freedom for Tibet or Hong Kong, Taiwan independence, or Tiananmen Square are allowed in CIs classrooms. Due to public outcry, some CIs have closed, though eight still remain in Canadian universities. Other CIs have been renamed and are now called the Centre for Language and Cooperation.

Canada’s military announced it has recently discovered Chinese surveillance monitoring buoys in the Arctic seas. This followed the Chinese spy balloon that floated down from Canada, then crossed the United States and hovered over military bases collecting and transmitting intelligence back to China before being shot down over the South Carolina coast.

China’s goal is world domination through unrestricted warfare. CCP law states the government has the right to access all data from all sources. Thus, when TikTok states its data on U.S. citizens is secure and is not stored in China, it is meaningless. ( A mouse click can send the data to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing.) A basic rule of life is to “never trust a communist.” A recent revelation has TikTok employees monitoring and compiling a list of users who watched gay content.

Canada is an important country that borders the United States and is in China’s crosshairs for domination. China is following its usual playbook of penetrating and influencing countries with economic, cultural, and military gray zone activities. Canada is awakening to the dangers of the CCP and is instituting new laws and actions to counter China’s economic, political, and cultural warfare.

The Heritage Foundation recently published “Winning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China,” listing actions needed to counter the threat from China. An excellent summary and plan, its primary value is identifying the issue — the United States is in a new Cold War with China.

The mission of the American Security Council Foundation (ASCF) since 1958 has been to educate Americans on national and economic security and moral leadership issues. “Peace Through Strength” is ASCF’s motto, and its implementation is now more important than ever.

Laurence F. Sanford is a senior analyst at the American Security Council Foundation.