True Patriot Love

00:00:00.000 it was just a few months ago prime minister mark carney told canadians the biggest threat to our

00:00:09.360 country was china and here we are in january 2026 and prime minister carney and a bunch of very

00:00:15.680 important politicians in this country are in china begging for their money in their business well

00:00:21.280 should we be concerned as canadians to talk more about a thrill to be joined by a former national

00:00:25.920 security analyst and the author of an impactful an incredible new book called under assault that's

00:00:31.360 available on amazon.ca and chapters indigo dennis molinaro dennis how are you i'm good thank you

00:00:37.600 for having me uh thank you very much for being on with us i guess before we get to the nuts and

00:00:43.200 bolts of the book i think there was an anecdote today before you joined us where reporters were

00:00:49.440 questioning melanie jolie that they were forced to bring burner phones to beijing for the meeting

00:00:55.280 for the fear of security and spying on by the people's liberation government of china this is

00:01:01.760 the kind of thing that goes on routinely how concerned should we be as canadians that prime

00:01:06.960 minister carney and the canadian government are trying to get so in bed with their government for

00:01:11.760 the sole purpose of business and money i think canadians have a right to be concerned and i mean

00:01:18.240 just by virtue of the fact that those like you said those politicians needed burner phones that tells

00:01:25.040 you a lot right there of the kind of country that you're dealing with in other words that this is

00:01:30.160 not a country that is or should be regarded the same as any other western nation when it comes to

00:01:36.160 trade or as a viable replacement for trade with our closest trading partner the united states the fact

00:01:42.720 that politicians have to be so careful about their security use burner phones when they're over there

00:01:49.200 it begs the question of is this really the kind of partnership you know that you're seeking here

00:01:54.080 with this guy with a country like this we're seeing it in so many uh different businesses that

00:02:00.720 were turn a blind eye to china and their practices because of the money the nba is deep deep ties to 0.72

00:02:08.080 china we're seeing it with movies john cena actually voiced i believe was a mandarin apology for a comment

00:02:15.600 he made about the chinese theater so they didn't lose the chinese movie industry what what is it about

00:02:22.960 the china and their economy that people are blind to all the bad things that they do 1.00

00:02:28.880 i think part of it part of it has to do with a little bit of nostalgia going going back to the

00:02:34.720 90s right there's that period of time where china's economy opened up and i think that's where a lot of

00:02:39.680 these types of impressions about the potentials of china that's really when it started to really take off

00:02:46.560 um and the united states was very similar to canada in that respect in terms of this fear of missing out

00:02:53.040 and getting into china as quickly as possible uh to do business there and so both countries

00:02:57.840 were you know guilty of that but i think that's where it kind of really took off and it's lingered

00:03:03.680 ever since and it's been really difficult to change the narrative on that in spite of all the activities

00:03:12.000 that china's been doing i think that's going to start changing especially as the temperature wraps 1.00

00:03:16.960 up or ramps up sorry with with taiwan um i think we're going to be forced to a moment of realization

00:03:24.960 of what china actually is i've heard this from different sources and you feel free to correct me

00:03:30.560 if i'm wrong but china plays the long game that they're willing to spend 10 20 30 years of getting

00:03:37.040 their hooks into a business or a country or a culture for their benefit but i was shocked with

00:03:42.560 your book and your research which is incredible that the ties from china to canada date back to the 70s

00:03:50.160 oh yeah um it it dates right back to the very i would say beginning of when when the prc is recognized

00:03:56.480 uh by the west now other countries recognized china before canada i mean the uk did france did but

00:04:02.480 what's important to note is that recognition wasn't so i guess you could say uh focused or heavily

00:04:09.760 dealing on on the taiwan issue the uk really skirted it france skirted it as well whereas canada made this

00:04:17.120 point to note uh the prc's position when it comes to taiwan and that's important because that type that

00:04:24.640 recognition language was really what the united states ended up adopting uh years later and it's also

00:04:31.280 important because my research dug into the very real possibility and likelihood that that recognition

00:04:39.120 was actually a foreign interference operation a foreign influence operation by china against canada

00:04:44.000 and its leadership well that raises a very good point that it was even acknowledged in the last

00:04:50.080 election that china's influence on our federal elections in the last decade are very very strong

00:04:56.400 and then we saw an individual uh potential mp who had to step down because of ties to china for for

00:05:02.240 the uninitiated checking this out listening to your interview dennis how deep are the chinese

00:05:07.440 government's ties to our country when it comes to election time i i think we have a uh i think canadian

00:05:14.800 should be rightly concerned i mean this this came out in the hogan query where we heard that there was

00:05:20.400 interference in at least two elections that we know of um federal elections we know that they're going

00:05:28.000 back to the 1970s like i said in the book there was an attempt to uh influence the governments at the

00:05:33.760 time uh even from my interviews from politicians who were on the ground in the 80s in the 90s they had

00:05:40.800 talked about the fact that influence attempts were known uh at the time that that they were trying to

00:05:46.000 be influenced that there was attempts to influence so this has been going on a long time and that's

00:05:51.120 a real problem and so the question then becomes what are we doing about it and what what is the

00:05:58.400 what what is being done about it it's one thing where you can say well maybe we didn't have we

00:06:04.640 didn't know we didn't have the research we didn't dig into it but we've dug into it the research has

00:06:08.640 been done it's very public um and that begs the question again of what's happening i mean we heard

00:06:14.480 during the whole inquiry about all these different networks and proxies and what have you of and so

00:06:20.000 what's what's happened with them to go into china now talking about partnership and strategic partnerships

00:06:28.320 and ignoring essentially all the security elements and risks that have taken place here and not doing

00:06:34.880 anything to protect canadians from them begs the question of how seriously does the government take

00:06:40.880 the threat of china and what does that mean for our position with the united states and i guess

00:06:46.880 that was my next question too dennis is i get the hesitancy to keep doing business with the united

00:06:52.160 states considering the current administration what donald trump has done the way he's treated canada

00:06:57.920 privately and publicly but are there not other countries and other economies that we can

00:07:03.520 form a relationship with other than china to benefit canada absolutely there are i mean and this is

00:07:09.600 this is a bit of the the problem i have with with what's happening here is that and the way really

00:07:15.120 that the argument and the positions are being framed um this is one administration this is one american

00:07:23.760 administration that our current government has a problem with it's not americans right it is not the

00:07:31.600 american people it is not businesses it is not it's you have a district you have disagreements with other

00:07:37.360 governments all the time um and i think those can be hammered out and hashed out but to seek

00:07:45.680 partnerships with countries that are adversaries of the west is not the solution because if we want

00:07:50.880 to talk about diversifying trade from the united states sure we should have been doing that a long

00:07:55.360 time ago just as an independent nation but the realities are that previous prime ministers have tried

00:08:01.040 to do that repeatedly and failed and i think largely because how difficult it is uh because of geography

00:08:07.920 because of the realities of where we are the culture the integration what have you um so they never

00:08:13.760 really sought to do this and this is something that would take decades to do anyways it's not going to

00:08:18.480 happen in carney's four-year term or it's just not possible so really i would say part of the other

00:08:25.200 problem is we talk about diversify a trade with the united states but what about from china why are we not

00:08:30.160 looking for other uh purchasers of canola besides china which has weaponized canola against us 0.81

00:08:37.440 before it did it in 2019 when we were had the dispute with the michaels uh and mong wenzhou's arrest

00:08:43.200 so why go back to the same market that we know will weaponize it again it's in and be forced into this

00:08:53.520 false choice of east versus west canada or canada or china versus uh the united states

00:08:58.480 speaking of denis molinaro the former national security analyst and noted author and academic

00:09:04.720 and the author of an incredible new book called under assault and and i think the term assault

00:09:09.680 dennis but there's also different ways to do it because you see the proliferation of fentanyl labs in

00:09:15.360 north america and canada money laundering in canada those all add up to hurt us as a country

00:09:21.920 oh absolutely i mean the thread is multifaceted and it's a multi-pronged thread

00:09:26.240 i mean you the laundry list is is enormous whether it's precursors of fentanyl whether it's things like

00:09:32.720 money laundering whether it's um you know just giving up secrets and uh biotechnology secrets from

00:09:39.520 the winnipeg lab um cyber attacks against this country uh foreign interference and influence against

00:09:46.080 elections uh that's just that's a handful right there and those things have gone on for years

00:09:52.800 and you talk about the book and i almost forgot about this that nortel was plundered of intellectual

00:10:00.080 property by digital spies and that's the one thing i've heard from different experts as well as yourself

00:10:05.920 all your peers that china and the chinese government think nothing of robbing someone's intellectual 0.95

00:10:12.000 property and using it for their benefit of basically creating their version of whatever product they

00:10:16.960 plunder yeah and that's really the the kind of myth exposed you could say when it comes to china

00:10:23.280 because there is that tendency for businesses and as it was put to me with one interview subject

00:10:30.320 in the book where they said you you go to china thinking that you're going to get rich you're going

00:10:36.480 to do business things are going to take off you you build your factory and across the street in very

00:10:43.120 short order the competing factory is built that has the same technology and ip you were using workers

00:10:49.360 are cheaper to pay them and you go out of business and you have to leave and this happens repeatedly so

00:10:56.160 again it relies on to go into china thinking you're going to get rich and this is going to pay off

00:11:01.600 relies on a level of ignoring the realities and the past and i feel that that's what the canadian

00:11:08.800 government has done a lot of which is believing what it wants to believe with china hearkening 0.97

00:11:14.320 back to nostalgia rather than facing the reality that it should be facing you know and i was just

00:11:21.200 thinking while you're saying that that it's one of the great jokes from ricky gervais and the golden

00:11:25.040 globes a few years ago looking at tim cook talking about slave labor to make iphones and you know he

00:11:31.200 looked uncomfortable there was the nervous laughs but there was so much truth to that but people are still

00:11:35.840 buying their iphones built in china yeah absolutely i mean there was a whole book about apple in china

00:11:41.120 um so it's it's it's again it's it's that that allure right that there's that there's that there's

00:11:48.160 profit there's money to be made when in reality you have to understand that the prc is interested in its

00:11:54.400 own interests and it will do whatever it can to benefit those interests and it does have the benefit to

00:12:01.920 where you know in that sense to accomplish it its leadership is you know it's part it's a one party

00:12:08.480 system that party does not change the leaders change and that's why you know you could see it as

00:12:14.000 something in to the effect of playing the long game versus western nations that have an election every four

00:12:18.880 years because their mission their desire is longer right if they're going to replace western hegemony

00:12:26.000 uh in the globe and to try to retake taiwan or conquer taiwan not retake conquer it um that's

00:12:32.960 going to take a long time and that's something that passes over from one leader to the next

00:12:38.160 10 years ago the thought of china being able to conquer taiwan and absorb it into the one china policy

00:12:45.920 i kind of shook my head and said i don't think they could do it they have built so many tanks and

00:12:51.280 planes and ships and so much military hardware in the past last decade that they now have the

00:12:57.440 capabilities so much so to do it if that happens and that's their you know their goal they've made

00:13:02.880 no bones about it what does canada do with their business ties does that mean they they stopped doing

00:13:08.080 business with china because they invaded taiwan well this is the situation right this is a situation 0.72

00:13:14.240 that we would be putting ourselves in if we seek some kind of enlarged partnership uh with the prc

00:13:22.080 now we don't know when they want to attempt to do this they've made it clear though that you know

00:13:29.360 xi jinping has has made it clear that he wants reunification to happen under his watch um and you're

00:13:36.080 right about the buildup the buildup from china is the largest military buildup that a country's ever

00:13:41.760 engaged in since germany in the second world war you don't build a military like this and be engaged in

00:13:48.320 a massive buildup unless you intend to use it um and alongside that they have expanded that dual use

00:13:56.960 kind of uh philosophy yes when it comes to building um civilian ships so you have coast guards for

00:14:03.840 instance ships that are built a ton of them that are being built that are going to be in service and

00:14:09.520 are in service of the plan so that's important to note as well they're utilizing that those that

00:14:16.720 those those ships and those boats for their military purposes as well because i i read somewhere that

00:14:23.360 they're building ferries like we would use to go from new brunswick to pei that that could be converted

00:14:28.480 to troop ships that day yes absolutely they are doing that and they have done that um so they have greatly

00:14:36.000 expanded the size of of of their navy um and landing craft as well amphibious landing craft to be able

00:14:41.840 to land to do an island invasion um one of their most recent essentially blockade drills of the island

00:14:49.040 was was condemned internationally that just happened right over the uh the holiday break um so this is a

00:14:55.200 very real threat that they are actively pursuing that they have a real policy that they are actively

00:15:00.640 pursuing and it's a threat to us it's also a threat to places like japan um when there is that attempt

00:15:06.640 to try to take taiwan that puts that puts direct security pressures and threats uh to the japanese which

00:15:12.720 is why they've been so vocal about actually protecting taiwan you know dennis so much has been made

00:15:18.400 since carney arrived in china about net zero in the climate in the environment and doing uh work with china 0.94

00:15:26.320 for the environment and climate and net zero and even the most pro-liberal supporter out there would

00:15:32.560 have to wait say wait a second china's the worst polluter in the world so how can they spin that 1.00

00:15:38.560 that they're hoping to get net zero in a business relationship with china which china pollutes more 1.00

00:15:43.680 than any country in the world well they've already thrown that out the window the ability to use that

00:15:49.680 net zero argument is gone and the reason it's gone is because just today they announced uh mou with

00:15:54.560 expanding oil and natural gas sales to china so you you can't be talking out of both sides of your mouth

00:16:01.680 at the same time i mean if you're saying net zero and yet you're going to expand gas and and and oil

00:16:08.000 sales to china those two things don't line up um now again it's it's not unheard of i mean united

00:16:14.640 states sells to china as well um they've just promised also the to expand uranium uh sales from what i

00:16:21.040 understand as well it's not that we haven't sold uranium to china before the problem is the

00:16:27.280 language and these types of agreements that's coming around it and the idea that china is a great

00:16:34.240 alternative to the united states that's really how it's being pitched i mean you see these kind of

00:16:38.720 posts on x that that mark carney is doing right now trying to and and melanina jolie and anita and

00:16:44.400 saying that well this is you know things like this is a new era what does that mean because all the

00:16:49.280 existing threats are still there they haven't been dealt with so what kind of a new era is this and

00:16:54.720 that's the problem that that's the real problem i have with what's been happening there's also talk

00:17:00.880 about reducing tariffs on chinese electric vehicles and electric vehicle plants and doug ford i mean i

00:17:07.920 don't agree with everything he says but when he says that could be a gut blow to the ontario automobile

00:17:13.600 industry i kind of agree with him oh he's right about that he's 100 right about that he's wrong

00:17:20.080 though when he talks about inviting investment from china uh as an alternative to that so that's where i

00:17:26.800 think his lines are crossed and he's he's not he's either not getting the full story about how the prc

00:17:32.240 operates or he doesn't understand how they operate and again it goes back to this failure to understand

00:17:37.840 the way china operates so if china were to invest in in ontario in a plant or what have you one ev the

00:17:47.920 ev industry is a strategic one for china so 100 there's going to be some government involvement

00:17:53.280 in whatever company uh is operating so you're probably going to have a company that has at least

00:17:58.320 you know the ccp has what's called a golden share of that company to exert some type of control over them 1.00

00:18:03.360 or leverage they offer so you're going to be inviting the communist party to invest in ontario

00:18:09.440 alongside that they are more than likely as they've done elsewhere in the world

00:18:13.680 would bring in their own labor to construct that factory and use their own technology which would

00:18:19.280 completely shut out sorry in ontario in ontario 100 they've been doing that around the world

00:18:24.400 they did it in brazil uh where they would bring in their own workers uh to basically construct the place

00:18:31.120 and so canadian labor would be totally cut out of that and then i would not be surprised either

00:18:37.920 if they brought in their own workers to run in there to work in it so where's the benefit to canada

00:18:44.400 and alongside that you would be bringing in a ally of russia an ally of iran and north korea into the

00:18:53.600 ontario market and supply chain integrated with the united states and how does anybody think the

00:19:00.000 u.s is going to react to prc technology and cars and equipment being integrated into a north american

00:19:09.120 market well i mean even if gavin newsom and the democrats were the current administration they'd

00:19:15.520 have a problem with it not just trump and this is the failure of of canadian policy makers today to

00:19:21.920 really understand this and people who are parroting uh a success in traveling and doing more business with

00:19:28.880 china what they seem to fail to grasp is that national security in the united states is much much more

00:19:37.040 non-partisan than it has been in canada and you see the consistency across administrations when trump

00:19:44.640 put in place tariffs against the prc biden continued a number of them and even increased them

00:19:51.360 the arrangement with tariffs on evs was not done under the trump administration it was done between

00:19:58.400 the canadian administration and the biden administration so if canada backpedals on an

00:20:03.840 agreement with an ally for the protection of supply chains and industry and national security with the

00:20:10.160 united states they would in my opinion they would be handing a justification to the u.s to keep tariffs

00:20:17.360 under national security grounds if they thought the the argument was flimsy under fentanyl they would

00:20:23.280 strengthen it by doing this and i am quite confident that democrats would be put in a position where

00:20:29.680 they'd say well we can't really help you because you you made your bed dennis i mean obviously your depth

00:20:38.240 of knowledge your experience and everything is the reason you are what you are there are other people like 0.87

00:20:43.600 you in canada and i i don't think mark carney is in a circle or dumb people so why don't they listen 0.77

00:20:50.720 to national security experts like you and others before getting into bed with the chinese government 0.85

00:20:56.000 so much it's a good question that i wish i had an answer to but it's it's something that you know um

00:21:04.960 politicians and governments have their own agendas and their own view of the world i guess you could say

00:21:11.520 and try as you might sometimes to dislodge that or inform it um if they're determined to do what

00:21:17.200 they're going to do for whatever reason they have to do it you're kind of stuck on the outside looking in

00:21:24.400 because i look at this deal now and say for sake of argument we have an election later this calendar

00:21:30.880 year it almost is carny and china against whomever and another country i mean it would not not be a

00:21:38.560 massive election issue for a lot of canadians this arrangement today it's it should be a massive

00:21:45.120 election issue my concern is that what's being ramped up to justify it is anti-americanism that's

00:21:52.880 being whipped up to to justify this turn and direction towards the prc when really it should be about

00:22:01.840 you know there's there's an opportunity in general here where canada could take a position of diversifying

00:22:09.120 itself from everyone um to become more self-reliant to become a more you know a stronger country in

00:22:16.880 terms of its relations with the world uh vis-a-vis the united states china everyone um but instead there's

00:22:23.600 this false dichotomy that's being presented as if we need to latch on to one superpower or another

00:22:31.600 um and i don't feel that that's the choice that should be put before canadians it should be actually

00:22:36.080 one that supports a strong independent canada from everyone um instead i i couldn't agree more the book

00:22:43.040 is called under assault by dennis molinaro available on chapters indigo amazon wherever you get your books i

00:22:48.480 i cannot recommend it enough and your eyes will be open to uh this country's relationship with china

00:22:55.360 and what it means to us going forward dennis thank you so much for taking the time and educating me

00:22:59.360 and everybody else it was i greatly appreciate it and it was something that will be a big story in

00:23:03.360 the weeks to come thank you very much i really appreciate being on the show it was great

Canada’s Dangerous Bet on China

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