British Universities accept £50.7million from ‘high-risk’ firms with Chinese military links, study finds

• The firms develop nuclear warheads, stealth fighter jets and spy satellites

British universities have accepted up to £50.7million in donations from groups directly linked to the Chinese military, a study has found.

Institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, have taken cash from organisations that develop nuclear warheads, hypersonic missiles, stealth fighter jets, spy satellites and artificial intelligence for the People’s Liberation Army.

The £50.7million total, which was donated for research projects and other undisclosed reasons, makes up a third of the £156million received by UK universities from Chinese sources since 2017.

Many of the Chinese organisations, including manufacturing firms, research institutes and universities, are sanctioned by the US or deemed to be ‘very high risk’ on a database of Chinese military groups.

Tory MP Bob Seely said: ‘This yet again shows that we need to urgently reassess our relationship with China. It raises so many ethical and security questions that a potentially adversarial state is using UK universities as its brain bank.’

Tory MP Bob Seely said: ‘This yet again shows that we need to urgently reassess our relationship with China. It raises so many ethical and security questions that a potentially adversarial state is using UK universities as its brain bank’ (File Photo)

Institutions, including Oxford and Cambridge, have taken cash from organisations that develop nuclear warheads, hypersonic missiles, stealth fighter jets, spy satellites and artificial intelligence for the People’s Liberation Army. Pictured: Magdalen College Tower and the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford

Many of the Chinese organisations, including manufacturing firms, research institutes and universities, are sanctioned by the US or deemed to be ‘very high risk’ on a database of Chinese military groups. Pictured: King’s College, Cambridge

Robert Clark, who compiled the research for the think-tank Civitas, said: ‘Universities continuing to undertake sensitive projects with dangerous organisations at the heart of China’s military machine not only threatens UK campuses but is the height of strategic incoherence.’

The data, covering 2017 to 2022/23, was provided by 47 universities. Organisations which handed over cash to UK universities included telecoms giant Huawei. It was sanctioned by the US for being a Chinese military-controlled company and banned from supplying equipment to the UK.

Sichuan University, China’s primary nuclear warhead research facility, which has suspected links to cyber espionage, gave more than £1.8million to Oxford University in a ‘biomedical collaboration’.

The Beijing Institute of Aerospace Control Devices, which is China’s largest supplier of precision-guided missiles, donated £132,317 to Cambridge.

A spokesman for Oxford University said: ‘We take the security of our academic work seriously and work closely with the appropriate government bodies and legislation. Much of our overseas collaborative research addresses global challenges such as climate change… where international involvement is important in delivering globally relevant solutions.’

Cambridge University said: ‘All of our funding and research partnerships are assessed against UK government export controls and we collaborate regularly with the UK Government’s new research collaboration advice team.’

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