Leading British universities have been influenced by Chinese agents, with diplomatic and unofficial pressure resulting in censorship on campus, according to a Channel 4 documentary.
The Dispatches documentary, Secrets and Power: China in the UK, alleges that the University of Nottingham closed its School of Contemporary Chinese Studies in 2016 in response to pressure from Beijing.
The former head of the institute, Steve Tsang, has openly criticized the Chinese Communist party (CCP) on several occasions, but said that university management asked him not to speak to the media during Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the UK in 2015.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The saga at the University of Nottingham, which denies that the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies was closed for political reasons, is one of many examples of alleged Chinese influence in the UK made in the new episode of Dispatches.
The programme also looks at Imperial College London, where it claims a leading computer science professor collaborated with researchers at a Chinese university to publish papers on the use of artificial intelligence weaponry that could be used to benefit the Chinese military.
It reports that Guo Yike, the founder of Imperial College’s Data Science Institute, has written eight papers with collaborators from Shanghai University on developing ways to use AI to control fleets of drone ships.
In 2019, Guo signed a research deal with JARI, a Chinese research institute with links to the Chinese military. The research deal was terminated in 2021 and Imperial College said that it returned the funding associated with the partnership.
Guo said his papers were “basic” and “written to help expand our existing base of scientific or technological knowledge rather than immediately solve specific real-world problems.” He added: “The papers include viewpoints that can benefit societies worldwide.”
The documentary also claimed to have uncovered a suspected Chinese spying attempt targeted at Hong Kong activists in the UK.
Finn Lau, a UK-based activist from Hong Kong who is subject to a HK$1m bounty from the Hong Kong police, says he was approached by a man by the name of Richard Vong, who claimed to be a journalist for the Toronto Guardian. On a video call, a clip of which was exclusively shared with the Guardian, Vong questioned Lau about his work with a campaign group, Global Detwin with China, which encourages UK cities to sever “twin cities” arrangements with Chinese cities because of human rights concerns.
The editor of the Toronto Guardian told Dispatches that nobody recalled Richard Vong had ever worked there. On the call with Lau, “Vong” declined to say how he spelled his surname, describing it as a “very personal” matter.
The Dispatches team used facial recognition software to track down the supposed journalist, and assert he is actually an American man who had worked as an English teacher in Shanghai.
The Chinese embassy in London said claims about suspected spying were “sheer disinformation.” It also denied that it had ever attempted to interfere with British universities.
Martijn Rasser, a former senior intelligence officer at the CIA interviewed by Dispatches, said: “Beijing is acting with impunity in the United Kingdom and is rubbing the UK’s face into it.”
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As we live longer, our risk of cognitive impairment is increasing. How can we delay the onset of symptoms? Do we have to give up every indulgence or can small changes make a difference? We asked neurologists for tips on how to keep our brains healthy for life. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH “All of the sensible things that apply to bodily health apply to brain health,” says Suzanne O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, and the author of The Age of Diagnosis. “When you’re 20, you can get away with absolute
May 5 to May 11 What started out as friction between Taiwanese students at Taichung First High School and a Japanese head cook escalated dramatically over the first two weeks of May 1927. It began on April 30 when the cook’s wife knew that lotus starch used in that night’s dinner had rat feces in it, but failed to inform staff until the meal was already prepared. The students believed that her silence was intentional, and filed a complaint. The school’s Japanese administrators sided with the cook’s family, dismissing the students as troublemakers and clamping down on their freedoms — with
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
RSS