Brutal truth behind China's takeover of UK universities

As concern grows over how much influence Beijing has in academic teaching and research, Jonathan Margolis looks at the clash over what all that invested money should 'buy' you

- Jonathan Margolis

Over the last decade, the debate over how much China is influencing our infrastructure and institutions has escalated. Whether it is technical infrastructure risks (Huawei/5G etc) or spyware being incorporated into Chinese-made phones or electric cars, there is a growing concern that we are becoming increasingly exposed to foreign entities who may not have our best interests at heart. And this week, that concern of stealth influence spread to universities.

There is increasing anger among UK academics at what they see as Chinese government interference with their lectures and research.

Just this past week, Professor Michelle Shipworth of University College, London, compared China's influence on teaching there to “termites eating a house”. She related how Chinese MSc students, and then her own bosses at UCL's Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources, tried to get her to cut out references to abuses of human rights in China from a module she teaches on critical thinking in data analysis.

Prof Shipworth's hair-raising account immediately followed the news that Sheffield Hallam University is facing a counterterrorism investigation over whether it broke security laws by stopping a project by Professor Laura Murphy examining forced labour in Chinese supply chains.

Previously, many universities with a large contingent of mainland Chinese students have been exposed as honing course content to avoid upsetting Chinese political sensitivities. Nottingham University, for instance, which has 25-year-old ties to the Chinese state, including running a clone Nottingham in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, was accused by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2019 of allowing Chinese military research on aeronautics to be done just off the A52 Derby Road.