MI5 has warned Scottish universities to sever links with a Chinese research organisation, which is said to have covertly financed hi-tech research from Beijing’s intelligence services.
In an unprecedented espionage alert issued on 30 September, Britain’s domestic security services said academics and researchers should terminate relationships with the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) over its “very strong ties” with China’s Ministry of State Security.
The alert said: “MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage.”
Last week, Sir Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, shared further details of the spying operation, reporting that the CGTRI had “been funding projects in the UK on topics like AI and cybersecurity, directly aimed at improving China’s espionage capabilities.”
He added: “This alert followed on from our warning to Parliament on Chinese intelligence using cover companies and fake headhunter profiles for clandestine targeting.”
In a period otherwise mired in controversy over ongoing industrial action, the University of Edinburgh’s vice-chancellor, Sir Peter Mathieson, who also heads international security for Universities UK, spoke to The Guardian about what the repercussions of MI5’s notice could be for the wider sector.
“They are saying that anyone who has a link to this institute up until now has not committed any kind of offence, because it’s not previously been said this was a high-risk activity,” Mathieson said.
“Now that they have said it, we have to sit up and take notice. It’s very much a forward-looking directive.”
A spokesperson for the university told The Student: “The University doesn’t have anything listed showing any links with the China General Technology Research Institute or any of the organisations that have been linked with CGTRI.”
Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash
