Strategic dependence of UK universities on China

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A recent study by Civitas, a British think tank shows that UK universities are recipients of significant funding from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A significant portion of this funding has been linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The study, which conducted a survey of 88 UK universities, revealed that 46 universities admitted to receiving money from China ranging from £122 million to £156 million since 2017. This funding is focused on research collaboration, one-off donations and contributions from PRC entities. That the objective and focus of such funding is to garner scientific information and knowledge is apparent as the new study shows. Notably, 30% of the financial support had direct links to the Chinese PLA, raising serious concerns over the UK’s national security. Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei, despite being banned by the UK government from building 5G networks from 2020, remains the largest single source of Chinese funding for British universities, providing between £20 million and £38 million in grants since 2017. Such a figure accounts for nearly a quarter of the Chinese funding received by universities in the UK

The study by Robert Clark, Director of Defense Security at Civitas, investigates two overarching aspects of dependence on China by UK universities. The first is the ability for UK higher education institutions, universities and academics, to financially de-risk from the PRC, in order to end the reliance on Chinese funding (in terms of international student fees, research grants and donations) made from Chinese entities which often have the capacity to harm or compromise national security. The second aspect concerns how this over-reliance on the PRC negatively impacts British campuses, including academic freedoms and high risk research collaborations with Chinese entities linked to the PLA.

It is not only the UK which has been subject to Chinese penetration. In February 2019, a report of the US Congress Subcommittee titled ‘China’s Impact on the US Education System’ noted how China “recruits overseas researchers and scientists” through multiple routes, forcing the country to draw a red line. China’s ‘Thousand Talents Program’ to hire top overseas scientists in areas like AI and chips was shuttered down, varsities in the US were told to dial down on Chinese funding, Confucius Centre’s were asked to wrap up and Chinese firms from ZTE to Huawei came under scrutiny. Pertinently, three UK universities received 100% of their Chinese funding from entities linked to the Chinese military, including the University of Westminster, the University of Huddersfield and Cranfield University.

The Telegraph newspaper when carrying a report focuses on the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, King’s College London and Imperial College London for participating in a scholarship programme with the China Scholarship Council which hosts nearly 650 Chinese nationals in British universities and requires Chinese officials to “review the applicant’s political ideology” and provide “pre-departure education” prior to arriving in the UK. Other Chinese military-linked entities that provide funding to UK universities include the seven education institutions, including the Harbin Institute of Technology and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, that are controlled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, research institutes for nuclear warheads, and the PLA’s largest supplier of precision-guided missiles.

The report also mentions that British universities, in cooperation with the China Scholarship Council, a non-profit arm of the Chinese education ministry, taps British taxpayers’ money to provide scholarships for Chinese students to study in prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. What’s more, these Chinese students are selected on the condition that they “thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, serve the national strategy, face national needs, provide talent support for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country,” and they also undergo “brainwashing education” by the CPC before leaving China.

The report also singled out the Confucius Institutes and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSA) as Beijing’s United Front organizations that monitor 700,000 Chinese students worldwide. United front organizations are agents of China’s united front strategy that tap a network of individuals and groups that are controlled or influenced by the Chinese Communist Party to advance its interests. Robert Clark said China not only endangered Britain’s national security by funding intellectual property theft at its universities, but its united front and surveillance efforts were also undermining academic freedom and free speech in the institutions. The report looks at how Beijing is waging united front work around the world, particularly in the UK and the US, to subvert its academic institutions and increase China’s influence at home and abroad. Clark says the Civitas research team also had very interesting findings on how Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party are conducting united warfare and exerting influence and intimidation operations on UK campuses.

Clark called on the British government to align itself with US sanctions, to expand the market for students from other Commonwealth countries and Hong Kong in order to reduce the reliance on Chinese students, to stop working with the “China Scholarship Council”, as well as end its relationship with the Confucius Institute. There are currently 30 Confucius Institutes in the UK, the most in the world. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said during his election campaign that he would close them, but so far he has not honoured this promise. Bob Seely, British MP said that the UK government should set out clear guidelines on what can and cannot be done, such as not barring discussion of the Tiananmen Square incident on campus, and not spying on or intimidating students. Whilst the CPC attempts to extend its overseas intelligence gathering and foreign policy agenda on to UK campuses, the real threat comes from the CPC’s ‘Military-Civil Fusion’ strategy which further endangers the UK’s national security, through attempts to rapidly expand China’s military modernisation programs, and ambitions for regional military hegemony across the Indo-Pacific region. (DIRETUS)

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