British universities are providing a “rich feeding ground” for China to achieve “political influence” and “economic advantage over the UK”, a parliamentary report claims.
In a wide-ranging study of how China has sought to infiltrate UK institutions, the Intelligence and Security Committee explains that China had been “particularly effective at using its money and influence to penetrate or buy academia” with the aim of ensuring that “its international narrative is advanced and criticism suppressed”.
China had also managed to gain economic advantage by “directing or stealing UK academic research in order to build, or shortcut to, Chinese expertise”, with joint Sino-UK research on dual-use technology being used to benefit the Chinese military, it says.
The report, published on 13 July, says China was often acting “in plain sight” when “directing, funding and collaborating on academic research for its own ends”.
