A report in The Globe and Mail set off warning bells that Chinese military and state-owned firms were funding research at Canadian universities and research centres. The problem: China was also siphoning off Canadian intellectual property (IP). Jim Balsillie told the newspaper that “it’s been years of ineptitude on this file, and we are at the point where we should question these actors’ commitment to our national security and economy.”
James Hinton, Mardi Witzel and Joanna Wajda made it clear that the practice brings more economic benefit to foreign countries and their companies than to Canada’s. Wesley Wark warned that China’s relationship with Canada “involves aspects of intellectual property theft and what we would understand as espionage.” Pressure on the Canadian government prompted it to stop grants with foreign military, state security entities and foreign state actors.