Former defence minister Anita Anand approved Canadian Armed Forces personnel providing specialized training and mentoring at multinational war games involving China’s People’s Liberation Army in 2023, newly disclosed government records show.
Internal military correspondence also reveals officials rejected a proposed media line claiming there was “no confirmation” Canadian troops would directly train PLA personnel because, as one officer put it, “that is not true.”
“We know we will be training and we have Minister of National Defence approval to do so,” read another internal message, according to Access to Information records obtained by Conservative MP Kelly McCauley and reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
Anand, now Canada’s foreign affairs minister, was defence minister at the time.
Three Canadian Armed Forces personnel participated in Exercise Khaan Quest in Mongolia from June 19 to July 2, 2023.
A draft media response from June 16, 2023, said Anand had approved Canada’s participation in training involving visiting PLA members.
One Canadian Armed Forces member participated in a command-post exercise involving simulated forces, command staff and communications between headquarters.
Two other CAF personnel specializing in countering improvised explosive devices participated in field exercises, providing “training and mentoring to exercise participants.”
“Training and mentoring provided by the Canadian Armed Forces contributes to military-to-military relationships, improves interoperability and military readiness while increasing understanding,” the memo said.
Internal records show military officials also wrestled with how to publicly describe Canada’s involvement.
A proposed media response asked: “Is the Canadian Armed Forces training members of the People’s Liberation Army as part of the exercise?”
The draft answer stated: “There is no confirmation that Canadian Armed Forces will be directly training PLA personnel at this time.”
Military officials pushed back internally.
“That is not true,” one officer wrote. “We know we will be training.”
Another said the reference to there being “no confirmation” was removed because it was inaccurate.
“We know we will be training and we have Minister of National Defence approval to do so,” the officer wrote.
Anand did not publicly comment on the PLA training at the time, according to Blacklock’s. She was moved from National Defence to Treasury Board roughly three weeks after Exercise Khaan Quest.
The revelation comes as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has revived formal military dialogue with Beijing after an eight-year hiatus.
Canadian and Chinese defence officials met in Ottawa on Sept. 4 for the fifth Canada–China Defence Coordination Dialogue — the first since April 2018.
China publicly announced the meeting the following day. Ottawa issued no announcement and confirmed the talks only after media inquiries.
The renewed dialogue has drawn criticism from the Conservatives, particularly given Carney’s pre-election rhetoric on Beijing.
Asked during the April 2025 federal leaders’ debate to identify Canada’s biggest security threat, Carney replied: “I think the biggest security threat to Canada is China.”
In December 2025, Carney also said Canada would not pursue a “deep relationship” with China in areas including defence because of security threats.
Since then, however, his government has moved to rebuild relations with Beijing, including reviving the Defence Coordination Dialogue.
Last week, Conservative defence critic James Bezan and foreign affairs critic Eric Duncan called on Carney to end the renewed military talks.
“We will not stand up for our sovereignty or our values by working with a government that has kidnapped our people, interfered with our elections, dropped surveillance buoys in our Arctic waters, and set up secret police stations on Canadian soil,” the MPs wrote.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre similarly accused Carney of reversing course.
“Before the election, the Prime Minister said that China was the biggest threat to Canada in the world,” Poilievre said.
“Now he is holding defence coordination talks with Beijing, which Canadians had to learn about from Chinese media.”
“No ‘new world order’. No military cooperation with a regime that kidnapped our people, interfered in our elections, and set up police stations on our soil. Put Canada First.”
The 2023 exercise was not a bilateral Canada–China military exercise. Khaan Quest was a multinational exercise involving Canada, China and other participating countries.
The last time the Canadian Armed Forces engaged in bilateral military training with China was in 2018, when PLA personnel observed Canadian winter-survival training at CFB Petawawa.
Relations cratered later that year after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition request and Beijing detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
Then-chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance subsequently cancelled plans for PLA personnel to observe another winter-survival exercise at Petawawa in 2019.
But Chinese troops had already observed the training in February 2018 — the last formal bilateral training activity between the CAF and PLA.
That earlier military cooperation only became widely known after Access to Information records surfaced two years later.
Rebel News published the documents in December 2020, revealing U.S. concerns about “unintended and undesired knowledge transfer to the PLA.” Trudeau’s government confirmed the following day that a PLA delegation had attended the 2018 training.
The records also exposed disagreement within Ottawa over how to handle military relations with Beijing.
Global Affairs objected to cancelling military exercises after Kovrig and Spavor were detained, warning the move could be viewed by Beijing as retaliation over Meng’s arrest.
Then-deputy foreign affairs minister Ian Shugart drafted a letter saying the military should consult Global Affairs before taking actions that could affect Canada-China relations.
Then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan told the House of Commons in 2020 that concerns about China were why Canada had stopped the military training.
Now, the formal Defence Coordination Dialogue is back.
National Defence had already signalled a shift in June, when a briefing package said Canada would work toward “greater dialogue with China.”
Former defence chief Gen. Wayne Eyre has defended military communication with adversaries, saying it can “avoid unintended escalation.”
Eyre argued Canada should maintain a communication channel with Beijing so incidents can be addressed before they escalate.
Ottawa maintains its China “guardrails” remain intact.
But the newly disclosed records show Canadian military specialists were providing training and mentoring at a multinational exercise involving PLA personnel in 2023 — five years after bilateral CAF-PLA training had stopped.
And eight years after the formal Defence Coordination Dialogue went dormant, Carney has revived it — with Beijing telling Canadians first.
The military never leaked this for three years?
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If a picture paints a thousand words...who's the only one grinning in the photo under the headline? That must tell you something.