The Canadian Press reports that an organization called the North American Foundation for Science and Technology is offering money to Canadian academics in exchange for sharing their research. Some experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party has used different methods to steal Western academic results over the past decade, and that Ottawa authorities should legislate to end the problem.
The Globe and Mail reports that the North American Science and Technology Foundation is headquartered at the California residence of Canadian Jonathan Lakey, who teaches at the University of California, Irvine, and was fired by the University of Alberta in 2006 after the university accused him of “financial irregularities with third parties” in his work. He was fired from his job at the University of Alberta in 2006 after the university accused him of “financial irregularities with a third party”. The report said the person who actually ran the foundation was Yao Lu, who lives in Montreal. The foundation targets prominent Canadian scientists, luring them to China to share their research by offering business trips, high-end accommodations and paid speaking engagements.
Lech did not respond to inquiries from our correspondent by press Time. But in response to an interview with the Globe and Mail, he claimed that he was not sure who really presided over the foundation, but did not think it involved the Chinese government or theft of academic secrets, etc. However, because he did not want to get involved in anything negative, he no longer had any relationship with the foundation and its website was closed.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston (Interviewee/Courtesy photo)
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, former vice-president of the Canada-China Friendship Association and a senior fellow at the University of Alberta’s China Institute, is well versed in the patterns of academic exchange between China and the West, having led Canadian scholars to assist in the development of scientific research in China from the late 1980s to the 1990s, when she was in charge of science and technology at the Ontario provincial government. She said the Chinese were humble at the time. Back then, she says, China was humble and open; now it is powerful but ill-intentioned. “China has a dark agenda against Canada, secretly plundering Canadian science and technology, whether through cyber theft or threats of inducements, funding some academics’ labs in both Canada and China, and perhaps even using underhanded tactics, like last year when the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) agreed to share proprietary cell lines for vaccine development with China’s KangXinuo. In return, Conxino was supposed to provide vaccine samples for testing and production in Canada, but in the end Canada never got the vaccine test product at all.”
The Canadian Parliamentary Committee on Canada-China Relations has held hearings inviting a number of expert witnesses to explain the various means China has used to obtain Canada’s high-tech results. MP Garnett Genuis said universities should be vigilant, and the federal government needs to take legislative action even more. “We should ban universities from working with countries that are hostile to Canada, and I’m very surprised that there are universities in Canada that have academic collaborations with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army; too many foreign government forces are interfering to influence our country for the government to remain inactive.”
A 2018 study published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that Australian and Singaporean universities accounted for the largest number of papers published by international academics working with researchers at PLA-affiliated institutions, but Canadian universities were also among the highlights, including the University of Waterloo at No. 4, McGill University at No. 9 and the University of Toronto at No. 10.
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