The issue of Chinese interference and influence in the Canadian academic community has attracted widespread attention. The University of Alberta has nearly 100 collaborative projects with Chinese institutions, and both the Canadian Minister of Innovation and Technology and intelligence experts have warned of the possibility of Chinese theft of research results. He avoided answering questions about the Dalai Lama, the Tiananmen Square incident, and human rights in China.
While some Canadian universities and school boards have terminated their partnerships with Confucius Institutes, some continue to operate, including the Confucius Institute at Carleton University in Ottawa, whose director, Justin Li, admitted during a hearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Canada-China Relations that the Confucius Institute is funded by China, but that China He did not have to report any information to China and had no relationship with China in deciding the recruitment process, but only followed instructions from Carleton University.
But Congressman Garnett Genius asked Li Zheng at the hearing whether he would attend the welcome party if Carleton University invited the Dalai Lama to visit. Lee said, “I’m not in a position to answer that question, and I don’t have sufficient knowledge of that hypothetical question.”
Genus pressed, “I’m not sure what you mean by knowledge? Is it that you don’t know this famous figure? You said the main purpose of the Confucius Institute is to promote exchange and dialogue, so what would you do if the university invited the Dalai Lama to come?” Li Zheng only responded that we would talk about it then.
Ginus then asked Li Zheng, who was in Beijing on June 4, 1989, whether the Chinese government had killed as many as 2,500 protesting students in Tiananmen Square, and whether the government had acted wrongly. incident, I was in Beijing, but no friends were victimized, and it was an unfortunate incident.”
Other members of Congress asked him if certain individuals, such as Falun Gong practitioners, could not be hired by the Confucius Institute. Li Zheng remained evasive.
Canadian intelligence officials have not only warned that the Chinese government is using Confucius Institutes to influence and infiltrate Canada, but have also mentioned that China is stealing intellectual property through academic collaborations with Canadian universities in order to enhance its own technological and military power.
The Globe and Mail named the University of Alberta, which has deep ties to China, as one of those universities that has collaborated on more than 90 projects with at least 50 Chinese national laboratories since 2005. Many of these projects involve the commercialization of Canadian-developed technologies, but with China in control, meaning that Canadian money, talent and technology are invariably easily accessible to China.
It’s very dangerous,” said Scott Simon, a professor at the University of Ottawa, “for the Chinese to say that they own 60 per cent and Canada only owns 40 per cent, so they control everything, when we’re talking about sophisticated technologies like biochemistry, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence. The university is largely funded by the provinces, so we need the provincial governments to come up with something to monitor.”
The Alberta government has expressed concern about the university’s dynamic, acknowledging that it is detrimental to the national interest, and has vowed to take action to limit some of the University of Alberta’s strategically important technology collaborations with China.
In March, Canadian Minister of Innovation and Technology François-Philippe Champagne announced that Ottawa was requiring universities to develop new risk guidelines to include national security considerations in the evaluation and funding of research projects.
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