OTTAWA—China and India remain central actors behind foreign threats targeting Canada, the country’s spy agency says, as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to reset ties with both nations.
“In 2025, the main perpetrators of foreign interference and espionage against Canada remained the People’s Republic of China (PRC), India, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Pakistan,” reads a report released Friday from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) on the country’s national security landscape in 2025.
“However, with shifting geopolitical realities and an increasingly multipolar global environment, these were not the only foreign states that sought to interfere in Canada. During the past year, a number of states, their intelligence services, and other affiliated organizations engaged in foreign interference and espionage activities to advance their objectives, while undermining Canada’s national security, values, and economic prosperity.”
In January, Carney travelled to Beijing — the first time a Canadian prime minister had visited China since 2017 — where he unveiled a new strategic partnership and a deal allowing some Chinese EVs to enter the Canadian market at a lower tariff rate, in exchange for China reducing its tariffs on Canadian agricultural products. That pact drew the ire of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who said Carney would need to explain “how he has gone from saying China was Canada’s ‘biggest security threat’ before the election” to announcing renewed ties.
But it was the prime minister’s trip to India the following month that sparked more backlash, after a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the visit, said the federal government no longer believed India was linked to violent crimes on Canadian soil. Despite India’s rejection of those allegations, the revelation prompted concern from Sikh activists and security and intelligence experts who believed the country’s behaviour remained unchanged.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report’s conclusions.
Friday’s report stated that CSIS observed an evolution of Beijing’s “espionage tactics” in 2025, noting that China’s civilian and military intelligence services “started posting job ads via cover companies to an expanding number of online job marketing sites to recruit Canadians with access to proprietary or classified information.”
It was an approach that led to engagement “with a much larger number of Canadians, who unknowingly apply to work for a hostile intelligence service.” While those Canadians may not have access to privileged government information, the report said, their personal information could lead Beijing to people who do.
The CSIS annual report also highlighted India’s focus on cultivating “covert relationships with Canadian politicians, journalists, and members of the Indo-Canadian community, to exert its influence and advance its interests” and its use of transnational repression to silence critics of New Delhi and create fear among diaspora groups.
The spy agency reiterated concerns that supporters in Canada of the Khalistan movement — which proposes an independent Sikh state in India — means “Canada must remain vigilant” regarding transnational repression activities.
While most advocacy for Khalistan separatism is lawful, the report noted that there were no attacks in Canada in 2025 tied to Khalistani extremist groups based in this country.
