The alert warns of ‘potential criminal consequences’. Photograph: Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The alert warns of ‘potential criminal consequences’. Photograph: Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty Images UK security and counter-terrorism MI5 warns UK universities over ‘theft of tech secrets by Chinese front company’ Security service says academics should stop working with and taking grants from firm backed by Chinese intelligence
MI5 China alert will send chill through UK’s cash-strapped universities
Prefer the Guardian on Google MI5 has issued a rare public warning to UK universities that China’s intelligence service is using a front company to pay for research by UK academics and steal the secrets of hi-tech projects.
Britain’s domestic security service said researchers and academics should cease work with the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), sometimes also known as the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT).
MI5 believes the body poses a “significant threat” and is now prepared to say publicly that the CGTRI is a front for Chinese intelligence, namely the Chinese ministry of state security (MSS). It said continued collaboration by UK academics could be prosecuted under the National Security Act 2023.
The Chinese organisation has funded 100 or more academics at a string of universities across the UK, in return for access to the research, which it is alleged found its way back to China’s intelligence service.
On Wednesday, the Chinese embassy in London issued a strongly worded rebuttal, describing the accusations as “imaginary and purely fabricated”. A spokesperson said: “We firmly oppose such baseless allegations and have lodged solemn representations with the UK side.
“Exchanges and collaboration between UK universities and China have always been conducted on a voluntary basis and in compliance with laws and regulations. Such exchanges and collaboration are mutually beneficial.”
The MI5 warning sent a shock wave through the UK university sector, with staff reviewing the implications for existing or future partnerships with China, and experts raising concerns about the rigour of the vetting process in sensitive research collaborations.
Areas of research targeted include AI, cybersecurity, covert communications and steganography – the embedding of secret data in seemingly innocuous files. MI5 believes it has clear evidence of sensitive information being passed back to Chinese intelligence, and the Guardian understands that some British-based academics were given honours and awards by the Chinese as well as research money.
View image in fullscreen The security minister, Dan Jarvis, has written to all UK universities demanding they cut any ties with CGTRI. Photograph: Leon Neal/PA Successive British governments have courted Chinese investment and encouraged academic cooperation. Sam Dunning, the director of the UK-China Transparency group, said: “It is reasonably obvious from the internet that CGTRI was focused on areas of high interest to the military and intelligence services.
“Granted, CGTRI used various aliases and have certainly obscured some funding streams, but as for the UK universities or academics who knew they were dealing with CGTRI, open-source research made clear that CGTRI had military or intelligence links.”
Vice-chancellors who spoke to the Guardian said they were not aware of receiving any funding from the Chinese institute, but warned that individual ac…