Report Raises Concerns About Canadian Universities, Others Collaborating With Beijing-Backed AI Labs

Artificial intelligence security cameras with facial recognition technology are seen at the 14th China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing on Oct. 24, 2018. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

A new report warns that prominent Western universities, including Canadian institutions, have collaborated with Chinese artificial intelligence labs on research that could advance Beijing’s mass-surveillance apparatus and other tools tied to human rights abuses.

The Dec. 8 report, authored by the New York-based business intelligence firm Strategy Risks in partnership with the non-profit Human Rights Foundation, outlines how leading Western institutions in countries such as the United States, Canada, and others in Europe have collaborated with Chinese AI labs that are part of, or closely connected to, Beijing’s surveillance and security apparatus.

It warns that these partnerships carry direct human rights implications, as research presented as benign has the potential to be misused to facilitate Beijing’s surveillance and coercion against dissidents, ethnic minorities, and rights advocates. It also raises concerns about AI research flowing freely to China’s state security agencies under the national intelligence law, which requires all individuals and organizations in China to provide data for intelligence work when requested.

“When Western institutions collaborate with laboratories embedded in this apparatus, they risk enabling technologies that facilitate arbitrary detention, forced labour, religious persecution, and the systematic erosion of fundamental freedoms,” reads the report.

“The Chinese Communist Party uses security and national security frameworks as tools for control, censorship, and suppressing dissenting views, transforming technical systems into instruments of repression.”

Collaboration With Canadian Institutions, Academics

Among the Canadian institutions mentioned in the report are the University of Waterloo in Ontario and McGill University in Quebec.

The report says the University of Waterloo has collaborated with Peng Cheng Laboratory (PCL), a state-backed institute in Shenzhen, China, that is funded and overseen by the Shenzhen municipal government. The lab focuses on broadband and next-generation networks, network intelligence, cloud computing, optical communications, and AI.

The lab is “closely aligned with Party and state priorities,” says the report, adding it was recognized earlier this year by China’s commerce department for its contributions to the country’s military modernization.

As well, the lab in 2022 announced plans with the Xinjiang government to establish a local branch of China’s national computing network, including a big-data centre, computing hub, and multilingual research unit—technologies the report says could further enable monitoring and control, based on the region’s well-documented surveillance.

Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang face severe repression by the regime, with an estimated 1 million or more being placed in re-education camps or other detention facilities. Survivors of the camps have described experiences of forced labour, forced sterilizations, political indoctrination, electric shocks, and other forms of abuse during their time in detention.

Examples of co-authored publications with researchers from the PCL and the University of Waterloo include a July 2025 paper on wireless network optimization, an April 2023 paper on wireless networks, and a March 2023 paper on wireless powered sensor networks.

The Epoch Times sought comment from the University of Waterloo but didn’t hear back by publication time.

The university says on its website that it collaborates with institutions worldwide as part of its focus on “internationalization and interdisciplinarity,” noting that these connections are driven by faculty, staff, and students. The university formed a task force last year to develop guidelines for institutional partnerships that align with its mission, vision, and values.

“Key principles include ensuring that partnerships respect institutional autonomy and academic freedom, the prioritization of safety and security, supporting environmental responsibility, and adhering to international human rights standards,” the task force said in a report released earlier this year.

McGill University, for its part, is mentioned in the report as having links to Zhejiang Lab—a state-funded research centre in Hangzhou, China—through professors serving on the advisory board of the lab’s biomedical research program, BioBit. The program develops computational methods the report says have potential biosecurity and surveillance applications.

“Collaboration here demonstrates how Zhejiang integrates into cutting-edge areas of life sciences computing that carry dual-use risks, particularly in an authoritarian governance context where biological data could be weaponized for surveillance or control,” reads the report.

The Zhejiang Lab received more than $1.25 billion in funding from the Chinese provincial government between 2021 and 2023, according to the report. It also partners with several state-backed institutions such as the China Electronics Technology Group Corp., which was sanctioned by the United States for building the Integrated Joint Operations Platform, the backbone of the Chinese regime’s social credit system.

McGill University did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. It says on its website that it welcomes partnerships with institutions “who share a similar global outlook and with whom academic and research interests align.”

Additional Research

According to the report, Zhejiang Lab co-authored 252 publications with Canadian individuals or institutions between 2020 and 2025. It adds that, during the same period, Canadian scholars or institutions co-authored 31 publications with another state-backed Chinese lab, the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (SAIRI).

SAIRI was established by Chinese state-run Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2018 and since 2020 has been run by Lu Jun, a senior scientist from the sanctioned China Electronics Technology Group Corp.

SAIRI conducts research in computer-vision tracking and applied imaging, with a focus on surveillance, public security, and urban management systems, according to the report. It has partnered with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, Huawei, and other domestic firms that have been internationally flagged for facilitating surveillance and repression in China, particularly in the Xinjiang region.

The report’s authors say the problem lies in the way research governance accounts for human rights factors, adding that current protocols screen for risks such as espionage and intellectual-property loss, “but they largely exclude the question of whether partnerships normalize or indirectly strengthen institutions tied to repression.”

“This absence enables a paradox: collaborations that comply with existing rules can still contribute to illiberal ends,” the report says.

Catherine Yang contributed to this report.