China pours tens of millions into the top UK universities

Top British universities have received tens of millions of pounds from Chinese organisations, The Independent can reveal, as experts warn the UK is increasingly becoming a target for Beijing as it looks to increase its global influence and stifle criticism.

- JABED AHMED

A series of freedom of information requests to Russell Group universities – an association of the top 24 research universities in the UK – found they received nearly £50m from Chinese sources in the past four years. None of the universities in this report is accused of improperly accepting funds or any other wrongdoing.

Oxford and Cambridge received the most donations, gifts, grants and research funding from Chinese sources. Oxford University brought in £24m from 2020 to 2024, while Cambridge received between £12m and £19m in the same period. This included money from Huawei Technologies and its subsidiaries to Cambridge after it was banned from involvement in Britain’s telecommunications infrastructure in July 2020.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and cochair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, warned that British universities have become “completely dependent on Chinese money”, leading to academics and institutions “kowtowing towards China and its views”. Sir Iain said the influx of money originating from China is stifling free speech and debate on China’s human rights abuses.

“This is not an accident, rather, it is intentional,” the MP for Chingford and Woodford Green told The Independent. “China seeks sensitive information from the UK because of our intelligence links with the United States, and Beijing sees the university system as a vulnerable strand of British intelligence.”