Beijing’s increasing use of espionage, threats, and territorial expansion risks becoming normalized as the West fails to push back effectively, says former CSIS director Richard Fadden.
Fadden made the comment during a Nov. 25 keynote speech at the Vancouver International Security Summit, where security and intelligence experts discussed foreign threats, particularly from malign state actors like China, as well as Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
Describing the regime as an “extremely sophisticated, aggressive power,” Fadden noted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been open about its geopolitical ambitions, but “most of which the West has ignored for the last 20 years.”
Fadden said Beijing seeks to become a dominant world power and will “weaponize anything and everything that they can” to achieve this goal, including via trade, tourism, and finance.
He cited Beijing’s increasing intimidation of the democratic island of Taiwan as an example, with China’s frequent deployment of military aircraft and vessels around the island in efforts to exert arbitrary territorial claims.
Western countries, including Canada, have sent vessels through the Taiwan Strait to affirm it as international waters, but Fadden said the the response from the West isn’t strong enough to deter Beijing.
“We haven’t done a heck of a lot. So, what becomes acceptable shifts over time, and we’re doing nothing to push back,” Fadden said.
He noted the Taiwan Strait—a 180-kilometre-wide waterway separating the island from mainland China—accounts for about 45 to 50 percent of global container traffic, emphasizing its strategic importance.
“If China decides—without invading Taiwan—to cut access or to limit access to the straits, there are ways around it, without a shadow of a doubt, but it will increase costs exponentially on a whole variety of goods, insurance costs will go through the roof,” he said. “So I think we need to start worrying about these things a little bit more than in an academic sense.”
Fadden also warned that the use of espionage in Canada by countries including China is “as bad now as it was during the height of the Cold War.”
While Canada passed legislation, Bill C-70, to increase measures against foreign interference, the former CSIS director said it doesn’t go far enough. He cited a Globe and Mail report indicating that Canadian firms spent $1.2 billion last year to deal with the aftermath of cyberattacks.
“We tend to focus on the fact that [foreign interference] deals only with government. It actually doesn’t just deal with government. It deals with civil society, and it deals with corporations as well,” he said. “And with the advent of [artificial intelligence]... we’re going to be in bad, bad shape before we know it.”
Speaking at a separate panel at the Vancouver security forum, David Luna, former U.S. diplomat and national security official, also warned about China’s role in facilitating global instability, particularly through illicit activities such as narcotics trafficking and exploitation of criminal networks to advance its geopolitical strategies.
“Some of these illicit proceeds help to finance, for example, the CCP and China’s global power competition strategies for 2049, to really become the dominant market actor and dominant power by then,” Luna said. “You see them really exploiting holistic economies; you see them engaging in strategic corruption, political interference ... leveraging proxies like the [crime] syndicates.”
He expressed concerns about Canada’s lack of preparedness in addressing these transnational threats, saying, “Canada is not prepared to really deal with the cross-border illicit factors that are impacting not only your national security, but the security of the U.S., Five Eyes, NATO, and many other partners.”
On the same day, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump issued a statement, blaming Canada and Mexico for being the pathways for an influx of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs into the United States. He threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods from both countries until they rectify the situation.
In response to the warning from Trump, the chairs of the Canada-U.S. relations cabinet committee, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said in a statement issued Nov. 25 that Canada “places the highest priority on border security and the integrity of our shared border.”
They noted that law enforcement agencies from both countries have been working closely together to “disrupt the scourge of the fentanyl coming from China and other countries” and that they'll continue their joint efforts in this regard. They also pledged that the Canada Border Services Agency will strengthen its ability to detect illicit drugs crossing the border, including by the use of enhanced inspections at ports of entry, detector dogs, and high-tech.
NTD contributed to this report.
