Under Siege

Interference and Espionage in China's Secret War Against Canada

De: Dennis Molinaro

National security expert Dennis Molinaro reveals the shocking details of Beijing’s five-decades-long effort to influence and interfere in Canadian political life. From cultivating future political leaders at the end of the Cultural Revolution to the foreign-interference scandals that have shaken present-day Ottawa, this definitive book addresses one of the most pressing issues of our time.

Amidst heightened tensions between Western nations and China, Canadians have found themselves astonished by hostage crises, cyberattacks, harassment of members of our government, and theft of intellectual property worth untold billions of dollars.

From PM Pierre Trudeau’s earliest journeys through the “Middle Kingdom” prior to his election to Parliament in the 1960s, the communist government of the People’s Republic of China has perceived Canada as a staging ground for spying on and pressuring its ultimate target, the United States. As Canada’s first tech giant, Nortel, was plundered of intellectual property by digital spies; as Canada was manipulated into advocating against the independence of Taiwan, infuriating our closest ally; and as Chinese Canadians were targeted in the country where they thought they’d escaped Mao’s terrors, Canada’s leaders have too often seen only what they want to see in China: an emerging market of inestimable value, and fertile soil for democratic change for a long-tyrannized people. Generations of Communist leadership have gladly allowed Canada's government to labour under these misapprehensions, even when the evidence of China’s spying, theft, and harassment of Canadian citizens has been happening right before its eyes. The intelligence has always been available, but Canada has rarely allowed itself to believe what the rest of the world has long understood.

Thoroughly researched and guided by the author’s experience as a historian and China specialist, and informed by numerous interviews with generations of politicians, diplomats and bureaucrats, as well as members of Canada’s Chinese community who have endured this harassment for too long, Under Siege is a timely, eye-opening account of a country compromised by its own illusions in a time of rising global conflict.

©2025 Dennis Molinaro (P)2025 Random House Canada

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Under Siege offers an urgent look at PRC foreign interference in Canada, an issue not widely understood outside of Canada’s Chinese community until recently. Dennis Molinaro reveals the extent of Beijing’s interference, from Canada’s democratic institutions to its local communities from the 1970s to the present. Drawing on his experience as an intelligence analyst, he outlines a number of actions governments can take to safeguard Canadian sovereignty. This book serves as a wake-up call for one of Canada’s most pressing national security challenges.”―Michael Chong, Member of Parliament