Carney says the U.S. is a bigger security risk to Canada than China
A week before he meets Xi Jinping, the prime minister says China’s partnership carries far fewer security risks than the United States does.
Prime Minister Mark Carney made the comment Tuesday at a Montreal press conference. Asked about meeting Xi Jinping next week at APEC in Shenzhen, Carney described an economic partnership “that is deepening but has clear guardrails.”
Then he added:
“In terms of the security risks of our partnership, they are much, much, much, much less than the security risks, for example, of the United States.”
Nineteen months ago he said the opposite. At the April 17, 2025 leaders’ debate, Carney named China as Canada’s biggest security threat. In Niagara Falls the next day he repeated it: “China is the biggest threat from a geopolitical sense.”
In January, Carney and Xi announced a strategic partnership in Beijing with a public safety and security pillar. Carney said it “sets us up well for the new world order.” Canada also agreed to let in up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles a year at a 6.1 per cent tariff, down from 100 per cent.
Last Friday, Safeguard Defenders claimed that at least 18 Chinese associations are acting as police monitoring stations in Canada. The Chinese embassy in Ottawa says it firmly opposes the allegations. The group has also alleged a station in Vancouver.
The RCMP investigated alleged stations in the Toronto area and in Montreal’s Chinatown and Brossard. It closed the Montreal probe in September 2025 without recommending charges. The two Montreal groups deny the allegations and are suing the RCMP for $4.9 million in defamation.
Beijing detained Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor for 1,019 days, in what was widely viewed as retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. A Chinese surveillance balloon crossed Canada in 2023 before a U.S. jet shot it down.
Yuesheng Wang, a former Hydro-Québec researcher from Candiac, is accused of sharing company research with Chinese entities. The RCMP says it is the first economic espionage charge in Canada. He pleaded not guilty and testified he disclosed no confidential secrets. A judge postponed the verdict in June.
In Winnipeg, two scientists were marched out of Canada’s only level-four microbiology lab in 2019 and later dismissed. A CSIS assessment released in 2024 said one of them, Xiangguo Qiu, intentionally transferred scientific knowledge to China. She has said she misunderstood the lab’s policies.
On Monday, shareholders sued Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang in California over Huang’s alleged relationship with Alice Huang, a former executive of Singapore-based Megaspeed. The New York Times reported last month that U.S. intelligence believes China’s Ministry of State Security recruited her to gather information on him. Trump said the FBI is involved in the probe. China’s foreign ministry called the report “groundless speculation.”
In none of those cases was the United States the threat.
Alexandra Lavoie
Quebec based Journalist
Alexa graduated with a degree in biology from Laval University. Throughout her many travels, she has seen political instability as well as corruption. While she witnessed social disorder on a daily basis, she has always been a defender of society’s most vulnerable. She’s been around the world several times, and now joins Rebel News to shed light on today’s biggest stories.
