Cambridge’s China complicity

UK-China Transparency (UKCT) was formally launched this week (see Notes, 16 September). Its aim is in its name. There is sadly little transparency about UK-China dealings, especially in our universities. I first reported this problem early in 2020 when I investigated the behaviour of Jesus College, Cambridge, and its China Centre, run by the CCP apologist Professor Peter Nolan. It is probably not a coincidence that the three founders of UKCT – Sir Bernard Silverman, Martin Village and the young freelance reporter Sam Dunning – are all Jesus alumni. The more they looked, the more uncomfortable they became about their college’s advancement of CCP networking and propaganda and its role as the ramp for the courting of the Chinese regime by the whole of Cambridge University. To coincide with the launch, UKCT has published its investigation of Cambridge’s extensive research links with Huawei, which are cumulatively worth £28 million since 2016. These actually increased after the government opted in 2020 to ban Huawei from core parts of the 5G network. (New engagements are now paused; earlier ones persist.) The work includes sensitive areas with surveillance applications like face and speech recognition. In one case, research papers have been co-written with Huawei and scientists linked to China’s military. Where Cambridge has been compelled to disgorge records, it has sometimes redacted details about the nature of the research.

At the launch, there was discussion of how, under Xi Jinping, the general situation continues to worsen. One theory is that the various property company collapses in China this year serve his turn because they weaken his rivals, including the late Deng Xiaoping’s family. He may believe it is better for China to let foreign investment fall and create a siege economy. This approach has been christened ‘West Korea’.