United Kingdom

Chinese students at UK universities are being pressured to spy on their classmates in an attempt to suppress the discussion of issues that are sensitive to the Chinese government, a new report suggests.

The UK-China Transparency (UKCT) think tank says its survey of academics in China studies also highlighted reports of Chinese government officials warning lecturers to avoid discussing certain topics in their classes.

It comes days after a new law came into force placing more responsibility on universities to uphold academic freedom and free speech.

The Chinese embassy in London called the report "groundless and absurd", adding that China respects freedom of speech in the UK and elsewhere.

The regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), says freedom of speech and academic freedom are "fundamental" to higher education.

The new legislation, which came into force last week, says universities should do more to actively promote academic freedom and freedom of speech, including in cases where institutions have agreements in place with other countries.

Universities could be fined millions if they fail to do so, the OfS has said.

However, the UKCT report says some universities are reluctant to address the issue of Chinese interference because of their financial reliance on Chinese student fees.

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The new premises [where China wants to build its new embassy] , opposite the Tower of London, is already being patrolled by Chinese security guards. The building is ringed with CCTV cameras too.

"I've never been this close," admits Carmen Lau.

Carmen, who is 30, fled Hong Kong in 2021 as pro-democracy activists in the territory were being arrested.

She argues that the UK should not allow China's "authoritarian regime" to have its new embassy in such a symbolic location. One of her fears is that China, with such a huge embassy, could harass political opponents and could even hold them in the building.

There are also worries, among some dissidents, that its location - very near London's financial district - could be an espionage risk. Then there is the opposition from residents who say it would pose a security risk to them.

The plans had previously been rejected by the local council, but the decision now lies with the government - and senior ministers have signalled they are in favour if minor adjustments are made to the plan.

The site is sprawling, at 20,000 square metres, and if it goes ahead it would mark the biggest embassy in Europe. But would it also really bring the dangers that its opponents fear?

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In 2022, a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was dragged into the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester and beaten. British police nearby stepped over the boundary to rescue him.

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"You know the tactics of the regime," she says. "They were following you, trying to harass you. My friends and my colleagues were being arrested."

Carmen fled to London but believes that she has continued to be targeted.

Hong Kong issued two arrest warrants for her alleging "incitement to secession and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security".

The bounty letter sent from Hong Kong to half a dozen of her neighbours followed.

"The regime just [tries] to eliminate any possible activists overseas," she says.

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There is another fear, held by some opponents, that the Royal Mint Court site could allow China to infiltrate the UK's financial system by tapping into fibre optic cables carrying sensitive data for firms in the City of London.

The site once housed Barclays Bank's trading floor, so it was wired directly into the UK's financial infrastructure. Nearby, a tunnel has, since 1985, carried fibre optic cables under the Thames serving hundreds of City firms.

And in the grounds of the Court, is a five-storey brick building - the Wapping Telephone Exchange that serves the City of London.

According to Prof Periklis Petropoulos, an optoelectronics researcher at Southampton University, direct access to a working telephone exchange could allow people to glean information.

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What the neighbours think

At the back of the Royal Mint Court is a row of 1980s-built flats. Mark Nygate has lived here for more than 20 years. He gestures across his low garden wall. "Embassy staff will live there and overlook us," he says.

"We don't want [the embassy] there because of demonstrations, because of the security risks, because of our privacy."

Opponents of the embassy - Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uighurs, and opposition politicians - have already staged protests involving up to 6,000 people.

Mostly, though, he fears an attack on the embassy - that could harm him and his neighbours.

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Archived

When the Government signed a deal on net-zero co-operation with Canada, the text of the memorandum was published. So too were the texts of deals with Ireland, Norway, South Korea and Chile.

Five months after the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband signed a similar memorandum with the Chinese government, however, we are still in the dark as to precisely what was agreed.

Chinese media have asserted that the Energy Secretary agreed to co-operation on power grids, battery storage, offshore wind power and carbon capture, among other areas; it is understood that Chinese investment in the UK was not discussed by Mr Miliband. The role of the Chinese state in Britain’s net-zero ambitions may well be an uncomfortable issue for the Labour Government to discuss.

While the Defence Secretary is insisting that Britain is “ready to fight” over the future of Taiwan and the Foreign Secretary is explicitly referring to China as a “sophisticated and persistent threat” that requires hundreds of millions of pounds in additional funding for the intelligence services, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been courting Chinese investment, and Mr Miliband’s drive to meet his net-zero targets is heavily dependent on Chinese industry.

Both the switch to electric vehicles and the decarbonisation of the energy grid will make heavy use of Chinese products. One study commissioned by the German defence ministry recently warned that this position at the heart of Western energy systems could result in Beijing enjoying the power to trigger remote shut-downs as “an instrument of economic warfare”.

Such concerns are less hypothetical than we might wish. Earlier this year, undocumented communication devices were located in Chinese-made power inverters exported to the United States, triggering fears that Beijing could use compromised equipment to “physically destroy the grid”. This would be fully in line with the current approach of the People’s Liberation Army to warfare as a clash between systems, and the extensive Volt Typhoon operation carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors.

Even given the understandable desire to avoid a sudden break with China, the delicacy of the balance between trade and reliance is such that the British public deserves to know what Mr Miliband has discussed with Beijing.