MI5 warns UK universities over research links to Chinese organisation

Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, has issued a public warning urging universities and researchers to stop working with the China General Technology Research Institute, also known as the China Academy of General Technology. MI5 said it believed the organisation posed a significant threat and had strong links to China’s Ministry of State Security. The service alleged that the organisation’s primary purpose was to fund academic research that improved the Chinese intelligence service’s technical capabilities.

The alert said the organisation had provided grants to at least 100 academics at universities across the UK in exchange for access to research. Areas identified as having been targeted included artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, covert communications and steganography, the practice of embedding data in digital images. MI5 said researchers should review current and planned collaborations and establish the ultimate source of funding when working with Chinese institutions.

It warned that continued cooperation could have criminal consequences under the National Security Act 2023. The alert referred particularly to offences involving assistance to a foreign intelligence service and obtaining a material benefit from one. MI5 said it had placed the organisation’s alleged links to Chinese intelligence in the public domain so that institutions and researchers could take account of them.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis said he had written to university vice-chancellors and called for arrangements with the organisation to end. He said international partnerships remained important, but the government would act against activity it considered harmful to national security. Universities UK, which represents 142 institutions, said universities took research and national security responsibilities seriously.

Its chief executive, Vivienne Stern, said institutions had strengthened due diligence and risk assessment while seeking to preserve international collaboration. The source also reported cases in which Chinese intelligence officers allegedly posed as researchers and obtained sensitive British research.