This article looks at a series of university linkages between Canadian and Chinese universities that were supported by the Canadian International Development Agency as a result of a development agreement signed in 1983 between the two governments. It first reviews relevant theoretical literature on higher education in a global context, and discusses the methodology adopted for the study. Then it provides an overview of a major program of collaboration in management education between 1983 and 1996, presenting views of leaders and participants on both sides. The next section overviews parallel linkages in the areas of education, engineering, agriculture, and medicine over the period from 1988 to 2001, and draws on the literature around university partnerships to identify factors that led, in some cases, to long-term sustainable relationships, but not in all. The final section of the paper reviews two major culminating linkages in environment and law, and suggests that these may have significant lessons for current and future cooperation between Chinese and Canadian universities in a new era of global geo-politics.