A report by think tank Civitas has revealed that the University of Edinburgh has taken over £12m in funding from Chinese organisations with links to the military.
The main funder was Huawei Technologies, a controversial organisation which was banned from Britain’s 5G network, funding at least £10m to the university.
Robert Clark, director of defence and security of Civitas, told the Scotsman: “Of particular concern in this project is the University of Edinburgh’s continued and extensive research collaborations and partnerships with Huawei – designated as a military company by the US government.”
Additionally, the think tank revealed that 96 per cent of this funding came from countries with links to the Chinese armed forces – The People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
According to the report, the university received between £12.7m to £13.8m from five Chinese organisations between 2017-2022. This includes £1,552,066 for a six-year collaboration with the university from “an engineering and metals developer for a Graphene-based research project.”
This developer, who currently owns the research project, “has an industrial partnership with China’s semiconductor market in addition to a link with three members of the Seven Sons of National Defence.”
Graphene is “a dual-use mineral which is highly desirable for China’s civil-military fusion”, which the PLA uses for the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea and their attack helicopters.
£39,866 was also funded by “a key defence contractor for Chinese military satellites”, a tech company who deploy China’s satellite navigation system – used by PLA navy ships, ground forces and air force.
The report also revealed that one third of all Chinese funding to UK universities have links to the Chinese military.
Other Scottish universities were also named in the report. The University of Glasgow received a total of £1.6m in research grants from Chinese entities with military ties. Furthermore, Aberdeen University took nearly £500,000 in funding from state-owned Chinese oil and gas companies.
In total, Chinese organisations funded between £122m and £156m to UK higher education between 2017-2022, up to £30.5m of these investments were from organisations sanctioned by the UK government at the time.
In addition, 40 per cent of all declared funding to UK Confucius Institutes – an Chinese state-funded organisation to promote Chinese lanaguage globally – derived from organisations with military ties.
This comes after critics and charities accused the institutes of the spread of propaganda and intereference of free speech.
The research project, The Strategic Dependence of UK Universities on China – and where should they turn next?, called for the end of academic collobarations in China’s “Seven Son’s of National Defence’ alliance.
The University of Edinburgh responded to the results of the Civitas report to the Scotsman, stating:
“We are keenly aware of national security and comply with current UK Government guidelines. We are also committed to supporting our staff and have invested in resources to give guidance to researchers working with international collaborators.”
Image via Rayna Carruthers.
