The Times reported Monday that Britain is investigating 200 academics at a dozen British universities for allegedly transferring specific military technology to the Chinese Communist Party through “academic exchanges” to help it build weapons of mass destruction.
The Times said the British judiciary is preparing to issue subpoenas to the 200 academics, with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if they are proven to have violated the Export Control Order 2008, which restricts the export of sensitive technology.
The British government has not announced the universities involved, but the Daily Mail reports that several of the UK’s most prestigious universities are on the investigation list.
The British think tank Civitas recently published a report, saying that the University of Cambridge (University of Cambridge), Imperial College London (Imperial College London), Queen Mary University of London (Queen Mary University of London) and other prestigious universities, all with The university has “exchanges” with Chinese universities with PLA backgrounds on sensitive military technology.
MI6 experts seconded to the Foreign Office to investigate alleged violations of the Export Control Act
The Daily Mail notes that the investigation is being conducted by MI6 counterintelligence experts seconded to the Foreign Office.
The British universities have been experiencing “China fever” in recent years, and have been exchanging ideas with Chinese universities, colleges and companies. The British government is concerned that advanced British military research could be leaked to China, such as ultra-high speed missiles, graphene, radar jamming systems, stealth technology, cyborgs, space technology, cyber weapons and more. British security services are concerned that the Chinese Communist Party could use these technologies for weapons of mass destruction or to suppress political dissidents and minority groups such as the Uighurs.
According to a new report by Civitas, a British think tank, 20 British universities have entered into exchange agreements with 29 Chinese universities and nine Chinese companies, all of which have military backgrounds.
Of these 29 Chinese universities, 12 are therefore classified as “very high risk” and 10 as “high risk” by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), an Australian think tank. The Civitas report also mentions that the University of Cambridge has been rated as “very high risk” and 10 as “high risk.
The Civitas report also mentions that the University of Cambridge ignored the fact that the People’s Liberation Army’s National University of Defense Technology was placed on the U.S. entity sanctions list to work with the latter in the areas of defense, communications and navigation. The report also said that Queen Mary, University of London, and China’s Northwestern Polytechnic University have established “partnerships” in aerospace and marine engineering, and that the University of Southampton and Harbin Engineering University are working together to build world-class naval vessels for China. It was also noted that Imperial College London, as well as Strathclyde University, a leader in aerospace research, have also received funding from Chinese arms dealers or PLA-connected companies.
When asked about this, spokespeople for the schools affirmed that cross-border exchanges are beneficial to the well-being of society and that the practices are in line with the law. However, the Civitas report recommends that authorities should ban Chinese academic institutions and companies with ties to the Chinese Communist military from funding British research, and that university sponsorship policies must be reviewed and a new body established to oversee these collaborations.
The University of Manchester announced last week that it was ending its partnership with the China Electronics Technology Group (CETGC) after warnings from senior Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee. The program was allegedly used to monitor and persecute Uighurs. The University of Manchester said it was the first Time it had learned of possible wrongdoing by CETGC. But this explanation was questioned by The Times, as two Australian universities ended their cooperation with CETGC for similar reasons back in 2019.
The Daily Mail quoted Han Lianchao, a U.S.-based Chinese political scientist, as saying that China sees academic programs as a shortcut to military power, with Beijing inviting Western scholars to China to teach, hire them as consultants or fund joint research, and that the technology the Communist Party acquires through these programs is often “dual” in nature, both civilian and military. Unfortunately, most Western universities and research institutions are too short-sighted and eager for quick success to see China’s strategic intentions,” Han Lianchao was quoted as saying.
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