China Watchers Raise Alarm as CCP Says Ottawa and Beijing Have Resumed Military Talks

China’s Ministry of National Defence says Ottawa and Beijing have reopened military talks, spurring concern from China watchers in Canada.

Beijing says the two sides held the fifth China-Canada Defense Coordination Dialogue on Sept. 4 in Canada. The last time such an event was held was in April 2028 in China, before Ottawa-Beijing relations soured over Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request in December 2018, and China’s subsequent detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

“The two sides had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of mutual interest, expressed willingness to strengthen practical exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, and enhanced mutual understanding and trust,” the Chinese Ministry of National Defence said on Sept. 5.

Ottawa has not commented on the issue, and a request to the Department of National Defence for comment wasn’t responded to by publication time.

A Chinese military delegation was recently in Victoria along with military leaders from other Pacific countries as Canada hosted Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defence Conference from Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan said at the time that she didn’t have any bilateral meetings with the Chinese representatives, but added that the federal government is demanding a realignment in relations.

“There is a clear demand from the government to recalibrate and realign our relationship with China,” she told the Globe and Mail at the time.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that he wants to have a “strategic partnership” with Beijing, and that this “sets us up well for the new world order.”

Conservative MP Michael Cooper criticized Canada’s military talks with the Chinese regime, pointing out how Ottawa also signed a police agreement with China while Carney was in Beijing in January. Opposition parties have demanded the details of the police agreement be made public or made available for MPs to review, while the government has refused, saying it encompasses cooperation on issues such as cracking down on fentanyl trafficking.

“Colluding with a genocidal regime that runs illegal police stations in Canada [and] interferes in our elections is Carney’s idea of a ‘New World Order,’” Cooper said on Sept. 7.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa who also sits on the advisory board of the China Strategic Risks Institute, said the resumed talks raise significant concerns.

“Of particular concern in the context of the ‘Defense Coordination Dialogue’ is the intended role of the PLA-Navy in supporting Chinese shipping and resource development in the Arctic,” she posted Sept. 7 on X, referring to the Chinese regime’s People’s Liberation Army.

“[Canadians need] to know where exactly our guardrails are in this Dialogue. We don’t want a strategic threat (as PM Carney has called China) traversing our waters with military weapons capacity.” During the 2025 election campaign, Carney had said that China is Canada’s top security concern.

McCuaig-Johnston, who previously worked for 37 years in Canada’s federal government, also noted that Carney stated in December 2025 that defence is one area where “clearly the security threats are such that we would not have a deep relationship with China.”

Scott McGregor, a former Canadian Armed Forces intelligence operator and intelligence adviser to the RCMP, called the resumed military talks a strategic mistake.

“Canada pursuing military cooperation with the People’s Republic of China is not simply naive—it is strategically incoherent and potentially dangerous,” McGregor told The Epoch Times.

McGregor added that Canada is partly responsible for the defence of North America, along with the United States, including as a member of the Five Eyes intelligence network, which has warned that China is trying to recruit government personnel and military.

“We are now discussing cooperation with the military whose intelligence apparatus is targeting our alliance. At some point our allies are entitled to ask whether Canada understands the threat,” he said.

McGregor noted that the 2023 book he co-authored, “The Mosaic Effect,” lays out how China has been engaged in long-running hybrid warfare against Canada that is “part of a broader threat environment that Canadian security and intelligence agencies themselves have repeatedly documented.”

“Against that backdrop, for Ottawa to now entertain ‘practical exchanges and cooperation’ with the People’s Liberation Army is incredulous,” McGregor said, adding that “it is also an insult to the intelligence officers, police, border officers, cyber-security professionals and Canadians who have spent years dealing with the consequences of these threats.”

McGregor said the the move “creates an unnecessary vulnerability for Canada at precisely the moment we need maximum confidence in Washington.”

“It risks undermining Five Eyes trust, complicating defence and intelligence cooperation, and weakening American willingness to accommodate Canadian interests,” McGregor said, adding that it harms Canada’s credibility across the Indo-Pacific region and with allies such as Japan, Australia, and the Philippines.

“We cannot tell Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Taiwan and other regional partners that Canada stands against coercion and supports a free and open Indo-Pacific, while simultaneously seeking military cooperation with the PLA that is driving much of the military pressure they are confronting,” he said.

While McGregor said there is a place for practical engagement and avoiding miscommunication is a part of “responsible statecraft,” he said that “cooperation is something entirely different.”

“China should be dealt with from a position of strategic clarity, resilience and deterrence—not rewarded with deeper military engagement while hostile activity against Canada and our allies continues,” he said, stating that Canada should seek to enhance relationships with the United States and Five Eyes partners rather than “creating doubts about them.”

The Chinese military has acted aggressively against the Canadian military in the Indo-Pacific in a number of recent incidents, including when Chinese fighter jets buzzed Canadian aircraft in 2022 in international airspace during Canada’s military mission to enforce U.N. sanctions against North Korea.