British media are reporting that Britain will announce a new policy on February 15 that will tighten visas for Chinese students or researchers who “may engage in espionage,” and that existing visas could even be revoked, a policy that could prevent thousands of Chinese academics and researchers from entering the country.
The Times reported on Jan. 31 that the U.K. will further restrict the academic scope of Chinese students at universities in order to protect its intellectual property and national security.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has informed British universities that it will conduct security checks on foreigners studying or working in national security areas. Chinese professionals working in research and development in British companies will likewise be scrutinized.
Review or revoke visas for Chinese in 44 sensitive areas
These visa restrictions include 44 fields: artificial intelligence, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science and a range of engineering fields, among others. The measures are expected to bar thousands of Chinese researchers from working in the UK, and revoke the visas of Chinese already working and studying in the UK if they do pose a risk to UK security.
The Times reports that the UK’s intelligence agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), has warned British universities that people from “hostile countries” are “stealing personal data, research data and intellectual property” in the UK and using it for their own purposes. “to use for their own “military, commercial and authoritarian interests.
Under Atas, the current UK academic technology approval scheme, foreign students need to apply for an Atas certificate if they wish to study or research in sensitive subjects. However, students from the EU, Norway, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and Singapore do not need to apply.
In 2018-19, there were 7,330 postgraduate students from China in the UK, most of whom were in sensitive disciplines that require an Atas certificate. In the same year, there were 3,560 Chinese nationals working as lecturers and post-docs in sensitive subjects at UK universities, who will be subject to new scrutiny when their visas are renewed.
In addition to academics, for the first Time, Chinese people working in research and development in related fields in UK companies will also have to apply for Atas certificates, and applicants will have to report detailed background information, as well as details of their field of research. Since late last year, they have also been required to disclose their ties to the Chinese Communist Party military.
“The Atas program previously focused on research into weapons of mass destruction, but was expanded last year to include “advanced conventional military technologies” such as aircraft and cyber weapons. The U.K. government did not disclose the number of applicants who were rejected.
“Britain recognizes the threat from the Chinese Communist military.”
Sam Armstrong, director of communications at the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank, said the change in policy shows the country is well aware of “the scale of this challenge from the Chinese Communist military”. “For too long, British universities have ignored the risks posed by researchers posing as spies, inadvertently contributing to the military ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party.”
A report released last year by the Henry Jackson Society found that 900 Chinese students who graduated with links to the Communist Party’s military were enrolled in graduate programs at 33 research-intensive British universities.
Last June, the Trump administration announced a ban on the entry of Chinese students and researchers with Communist military backgrounds, and that year U.S. federal prosecutors filed more than a dozen criminal cases related to intellectual property theft.
In several recent cases, Chen Gang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Mechanical Engineering, was charged with wire fraud, failure to file foreign bank and financial account reports, concealing ties to Communist Chinese government agencies, and making false statements to U.S. government agencies.
Last December, Yu Zhou and his wife Li Chen, a Chinese-American man who did research at the National Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty to stealing and profiting from medical trade secrets.
Last November, Song Guo Zheng, a rheumatologist and immunologist at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, allegedly fraudulently obtained approximately $4.1 million in federal grants from the National Institutes of health (NIH), failed to tell NIH about his partnership with a Chinese Communist institution and about additional grant funds provided to him by the Chinese, and lied to investigators.
Last November, Wei Sun, a Chinese-born engineer who worked for U.S. defense contractor Raytheon, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 38 months in prison after admitting to violating the U.S. Arms Export Control Act (AECA).
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