Canada Renews Funding for China Student Exchange Program That Requires Allegiance to Communist Regime

33

116SavePrint

Carolina Avendano

8/1/2025|Updated: 8/2/2025

0:00X 1

Canada has renewed funding for a bilateral scholarship program that requires Chinese candidates applying to study in Canada to show allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and uphold the party’s “socialist system.”

David Morrison, deputy minister of foreign affairs at Global Affairs Canada, on July 30 signed an agreement with his Chinese counterpart, executive vice minister Ma Zhaoxu, to renew the Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program. Through the program, Ottawa funds Chinese applicants to conduct research at Canadian universities as visiting scholars for 4–12 months.

The scholarships are administered by the China Scholarship Council and the Canadian Embassy in China. The Epoch Times reported last year that the first condition for Chinese applicants, listed on the website of China’s National Study Abroad Fund, is that they must support the Communist Party’s leadership.

Applicants must “uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, love the motherland, have good moral character, abide by the law, and have a sense of responsibility to serve the country, society and the people, as well as a correct worldview, outlook on life and values,” reads the first condition to apply.

Other eligibility requirements include holding Chinese nationality, being in good physical and mental health, demonstrating foreign language proficiency, and being no older than 50.

The bilateral program also provides Beijing-funded scholarships for Canadian applicants to study or conduct research in China.

RELATED STORIES

Tories Condemn Ottawa’s Funding of Program Requiring CCP Allegiance by Participants

China’s Infiltration of North America Runs ‘Deep,’ Says Canadian Investigative Journalist

The condition to uphold the Party’s leadership and socialist system was also listed on the scholarship website for the 2024–2025 academic year.

Following The Epoch Times’ reporting on the issue, Conservative MP and foreign affairs critic Michael Chong called the requirement “unacceptable,” criticizing Ottawa for “using Canadian taxpayers’ money to fund a program which requires participants to support the Chinese Communist Party and uphold its ideology.”

Conservative MP Michael Cooper also raised concerns, saying the requirement is “outrageous” and that “the government of Canada must stop funding this program.”

The Epoch Times contacted Global Affairs Canada for comment but didn’t hear back by publication time.

Described as Canada’s longest-running bilateral scholarship program, the Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program was established in 1973 as part of an agreement between then-Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and then-Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. It is aimed at fostering “mutual understanding, academic collaboration, and cultural exchange,” according to the program’s description.

For Chinese applicants, the program is open to academic staff, master’s or doctoral graduates, as well as non-academics holding “senior professional posts” in China, such as judges, broadcasters, and economists. Their scholarship program focuses on Canadian studies, with an emphasis on social sciences and humanities.

The Canadian government covers their living and medical insurance costs, while China’s National Study Abroad Fund pays for round-trip travel expenses.

For Canadian applicants, the program is open to students, teaching or research staff, and mid-career professionals to pursue post-secondary studies, research, or Chinese language training. The Chinese regime covers their living and medical insurance expenses while Global Affairs Canada covers the cost of travel.

In announcing the renewal of the program, Morrison said he was “pleased” to have welcomed his Chinese counterpart in Ottawa. “Regular and open dialogue at all levels is key to diplomatic ties,” he said in a July 31 social media post.

Global Affairs said the visit was an opportunity to “discuss challenges and advance constructive dialogue on a range of Canadian interests.”

Concerns

Gloria Fung, immediate past president of Canada-Hong Kong Link and a pro-democracy advocate, says the exchange program contravenes Canada’s democratic values and “plays into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party by enhancing its control over the Chinese people.”

“It does nothing to advance Canada’s interests and simply opens up more opportunities for the CCP to send its agents to infiltrate our academic and business sectors and propagandize Canadian students who go to China,” she told The Epoch Times.

“Canadian taxpayers should not subsidize students from dictatorial regimes,” she added. “Our government should only engage in exchange programs with like-minded democracies.”

Canada has previously raised concerns about national security risks stemming from academic collaborations involving Chinese entities with ties to the Beijing regime. In 2023, Ottawa ended research funding for projects where any of the researchers is “affiliated with a university, research institute or laboratory connected to military, national defence or state security entities of foreign state actors that pose a risk to our national security.”

The move came after reports that researchers from some 50 universities in Canada had been collaborating with one of China’s top military institutions on research ranging from quantum cryptography to photonics to space science.

Human rights lawyer David Matas told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that the exchange program’s requirement for candidates to support the CCP leadership also implies supporting Beijing’s hostile activities abroad.

“Supporting communist leadership means supporting what they’re doing, and supporting what they’re doing means complying with their requests,” he said. “If the Communist Party leadership asks [the successful candidates] to spy and they don’t, that is not supporting the Communist Party leadership.”

Beijing has a National Intelligence Law that requires all individuals and organizations in China to hand over data to the state when required to help with intelligence work.

Source: Epoch Times