Alex Joske
The Chinese military’s collaboration with unusual universities.
What’s the problem?
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is expanding its enquiry collaboration with universities exterior of China. Since 2007, the PLA has sponsored to a greater extent than than 2,500 military machine scientists as well as engineers to study abroad as well as has developed relationships with researchers as well as institutions across the globe.1
This collaboration is highest inwards the Five Eyes countries, Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany as well as Singapore, as well as is often unintentionally supported yesteryear taxpayer funds.2 Commonwealth of Australia has been engaged inwards the highest flat of PLA collaboration alongside Five Eyes countries per capita, at half-dozen times the flat inwards the US. Nearly all PLA scientists sent abroad are Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members who render to Communist People's Republic of China on time.
Dozens of PLA scientists take away hold obscured their military machine affiliations to move to Five Eyes countries as well as the European Union, including at to the lowest degree 17 to Australia, where they go inwards areas such equally hypersonic missiles as well as navigation technology. Those countries don’t count Communist People's Republic of China equally a safety ally but rather care for it equally i of their primary tidings adversaries.3
The activities discussed inwards this paper, described yesteryear the PLA equally a procedure of ‘picking flowers inwards unusual lands to brand beloved inwards China’ (异国采花，中华酿蜜), jeopardy harming the West’s strategic advantage.4
Helping a contender military machine develop its expertise as well as engineering isn’t inwards the national interest, yet it’s non clear that Western universities as well as governments are fully aware of this phenomenon.5 Some universities take away hold failed to response to legitimate safety concerns inwards their engagement with China. Current policies yesteryear governments as well as universities take away hold non fully addressed issues similar the transfer of knowledge as well as engineering through collaboration with the PLA. Clear authorities policy towards universities working with the PLA is also lacking.6
What’s the solution?
Understanding as well as responding to PLA collaboration volition require closer engagement betwixt governments as well as universities. While universities haven’t self-regulated on this number as well as haven’t controlled the associated safety risks, universities as well as researchers volition non effectively bound the risks of PLA collaboration on their ain until governments develop clear policies on it.
Governments demand to explore a wider make of tools for limiting engineering transfer, including amend scrutiny of visa applications yesteryear Chinese military machine scientists as well as farther legislation targeting military machine goal users.
Governments should also consider increasing funding to strategic scientific discipline as well as engineering fields, piece actively limiting problematic unusual investment inwards those fields. Universities must recognise the risks of such collaboration as well as seek to larn the extent as well as nature of their collaboration with the PLA yesteryear actively working with government, civil social club as well as safety professionals.
Introduction
In 2017, the caput of the American Association for the Advancement of Science said that ‘Scientific progress depends on openness, transparency as well as the gratis flow of ideas.’7 This collaborative as well as opened upwards spirit, including collaboration with Chinese scientists, has led to some of the neat scientific achievements of recent times.8
While countries such equally Commonwealth of Australia as well as the U.S. pride themselves on their scientific achievements, their universities as well as enquiry institutes human face upwards express or declining domestic funding.9 To address these issues, many universities take away hold turned to China—an emerging scientific powerhouse that has sought to build ties to scientific communities unopen to the world.10 This collaboration has to a greater extent than often than non been a productive as well as welcome component subdivision of the Australia–China relationship.
The Chinese military machine has also ridden this moving ridge of enquiry collaboration, sponsoring to a greater extent than than 2,500 scientists to move to universities inwards technologically advanced countries such equally Commonwealth of Australia equally students or visiting scholars over the yesteryear decade.11 The book of peer-reviewed literature produced yesteryear PLA scientists inwards collaboration with unusual scientists each twelvemonth has grown steadily since 2008, next increases inwards the number of PLA scientists sent abroad (Figure 1).12 Those scientists go inwards strategic as well as emerging engineering sectors such equally quantum physics, signal processing, cryptography, navigation engineering as well as autonomous vehicles.
The PLA’s computer programme of sending scientists abroad is dissimilar from touchstone military machine exchanges, inwards which military machine officers see each other’s institutions. Those opened upwards exchanges build understanding, communication as well as relationships betwixt militaries.
Figure 1: PLA collaboration, equally measured yesteryear the number of peer-reviewed articles co-authored yesteryear PLA scientists with overseas scientists, 2006 to 2017
In contrast, the PLA National University of Defense Technology (NUDT, 解放军国防科学技术大学) appears to conceive of its military machine exchanges separately from its international enquiry ties, which are concentrated inwards unusual universities as well as non military machine institutions.13 Scientists sent abroad yesteryear the PLA take away hold minimal or no interaction with military machine personnel inwards their host countries. Some of those travelling overseas take away hold actively used encompass to disguise their military machine affiliations, claiming to last from non-existent academic institutions.
Around one-half of those sent abroad are PhD scholars who either consummate their doctorates overseas or pass upwards to 2 years equally visiting PhD scholars as well as who tin give the axe ordinarily last identified yesteryear searching peer-reviewed literature. While most come upwards from NUDT, the Army Engineering University is some other major source.14 The remaining one-half are sent overseas for short-term trips, spending upwards to a twelvemonth equally visiting scholars. Few of those scientists take away hold left online traces of their fourth dimension overseas.
While unusual universities’ ties with the PLA take away hold grown, it isn’t clear that universities take away hold developed an understanding of the PLA as well as how their collaboration with it differs from familiar forms of scientific collaboration. To date, there’s been no important world word on why universities should last straight contributing to the engineering of a non-allied military. Importantly, there’s also piffling evidence that universities are making whatsoever meaningful distinction betwixt collaboration with the Chinese military machine as well as the balance of their collaboration with China.
A handful of universities take away hold strongly defended their collaboration with the PLA. Among universities inwards Five Eyes countries, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has published the most peer-reviewed literature inwards collaboration with PLA scientists. After attracting scrutiny for this collaboration, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor wrote, ‘Any fears that our intellectual holding or safety is undermined through our go with international partners are exclusively unfounded.’15
Australia’s Curtin University has described its collaboration with the PLA inwards similar terms, insisting that go yesteryear its scientists with PLA experts on explosions as well as projectiles doesn’t violate whatsoever laws as well as is civilian research.16
Government enquiry agencies take away hold also engaged inwards collaboration with the PLA. For example, researchers at the Australian Government’s Commonwealth Scientific as well as Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) take away hold collaborated with NUDT scientists on cloud computing technology.
Those same NUDT scientists were using cloud computing engineering for fighting simulations.17 Large sums of authorities funds take away hold been used for collaboration with PLA scientists. One professor at UNSW, for instance, worked with PLA scientists using Australian Research Council grants worth $2.3 million.18 Internationally, defence funding has also been used for enquiry with PLA scientists; for example, a newspaper written yesteryear University of Manchester scientists with a visiting pupil from NUDT lists U.S. Air Force as well as Navy grants equally funding sources.19
International military–civil fusion
In China, the PLA’s overseas enquiry collaboration is described inwards frank terms. The PLA Daily uses the maxim ‘Picking flowers inwards unusual lands to brand beloved inwards China’ to explicate how it seeks to leverage overseas expertise, enquiry as well as grooming to develop amend military machine technology.20
This is i aspect of what Communist People's Republic of China calls ‘military–civil fusion’ (军民融合). The term refers to China’s efforts to improve its military’s powerfulness to select payoff of the inventiveness of the civilian sector as well as develop its ain indigenous military–industrial complex. Described yesteryear PLA experts equally a ‘cornerstone of PRC national defence forcefulness reform’, military–civil fusion is helping to drive the modernisation of the PLA.21
So of import is military–civil fusion to President Xi Jinping’s military machine reforms that he described it before this twelvemonth equally a prerequisite for edifice strategic capabilities as well as a strong military.22
Illustrating the benefits that the PLA obtains from its overseas enquiry collaboration, a publication run yesteryear China’s Ministry of Education stated that NUDT’s collaboration with the University of Cambridge to educate visiting PLA students volition ‘greatly enhance the nation’s powerfulness inwards the fields of national defence, communications, anti-jamming for imaging as well as high-precision navigation’.23Likewise, before travelling to Sweden for doctoral studies inwards quantum physics, an NUDT scientist was told yesteryear his supervisor, ‘Without breakthroughs inwards physics, how tin give the axe at that topographic point last rapid developments inwards weaponry?’24
Figure 2: Lieutenant General Yang Xuejun (2nd from right) as well as Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission, inwards July 2017
Lieutenant-General Yang Xuejun (杨学军, Figure 2), who oversaw a substantial rising inwards NUDT’s overseas links when he was its president from 2011 to 2017, appears to last i of the key figures behind this phenomenon. NUDT, equally the Chinese military’s largest scientific discipline as well as engineering university, tin give the axe last seen equally representative of broader initiatives inwards this area. The academy is the primary root of PLA scientists studying abroad as well as yesteryear 2013 had reportedly sent to a greater extent than than 1,600 scientists overseas equally students or visiting scholars, including roughly a 3rd of its PhD scholars.25 An article written yesteryear NUDT scholars claims that the academy received 300m renminbi ($A60m) from the Chinese authorities to send 765 graduate students to study abroad.26 According to General Yang, who has implied that NUDT’s overseas ties are a shape of military–civil fusion, the academy ‘has already reaped neat benefits from going downwards the opened upwards academy path as well as the military–civil fusion road’.27
General Yang’s recent advertisement to membership of the 205-member 19th CCPCentral Committee as well as to leadership of the Academy of Military Sciences, the PLA’s premier enquiry institution, reflects Xi Jinping’s emphasis on ‘rejuvenating the military machine with scientific discipline as well as technology’.28 It was in all probability also a recognition of the success with which Yang developed NUDT’s international ties.
Yang, himself a supercomputer expert, has collaborated extensively with UNSWand ran the computer programme to develop the Tianhe-1A supercomputer, i time ranked equally the world’s fastest supercomputer.29 The NUDT supercomputer program’s purpose inwards nuclear weapons testing led to NUDT beingness placed on the U.S. Government’s Entity List inwards 2015, pregnant that the academy faces stricter export controls, yet substantial numbers of NUDT scientists maintain to educate exterior China, including inwards the US, the UK as well as Australia.30
The PLA encourages scientists to go on areas of involvement to the military machine piece they’re overseas. For example, a 2016 article yesteryear NUDT specialists inwards graduate pupil pedagogy recommends that, inwards choosing where to study overseas, students’ outset priority should last the relevance of the enquiry direction of an overseas establishment to their go inwards China, equally they ‘must comprehensively consider the continuity of their enquiry go when inwards Communist People's Republic of China with that when they are studying overseas’.31 When students are overseas, the study adds, they should ‘fully select payoff of the cutting-edge enquiry weather as well as environs abroad’ as well as ‘map out the arrangements of their overseas enquiry as well as their plans for enquiry after returning to China’. This alignment of domestic as well as overseas go indicates that the cases of PLA scientists gaining skills piece inwards Commonwealth of Australia that they so usage for military machine projects aren’t outliers; they’re representative examples.32
Sources of as well as destinations for PLA scientists
PLA scientists come upwards from a broad make of institutions as well as disciplines within the Chinese military. Analysing peer-reviewed publications co-authored yesteryear PLA scientists as well as overseas scientists indicates that the US, the UK, Canada, Commonwealth of Australia as well as Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany were, inwards that order, the top 5 countries engaged inwards enquiry collaboration with the PLA inwards 2017 (Figure 3). Those countries appear to last the primary destinations for PLA scientists sent abroad.
Figure 3: The top 10 countries for PLA collaboration, equally measured yesteryear peer-reviewed literature co-authored yesteryear PLA scientists, 2006 to 2017
PLA scientists sent abroad equally visiting scholars came from institutions such as:
the Northwestern Institute of Nuclear Technology (西北核技术研究所), which industrial plant on nuclear as well as high-power microwave weapons
the Chemical Defense Institute of the Academy of Military Sciences (军事科学院防化研究院), which specialises inwards chemic weapons enquiry as well as has sent a sarin gas goodness overseas
the Navy Submarine Academy (海军潜艇学院) inwards Qingdao
the Armored Forces Engineering Academy (装甲兵工程学院) inwards Beijing, which industrial plant on tank technology
the Communist People's Republic of China Aerodynamics Research as well as Development Center (中国空气动力研究与发展中心), which has sent scramjet researchers to study overseas
the Rocket Force Engineering University (火箭军工程大学), which conducts enquiry for China’s missile programs
the Academy of Equipment Command as well as Technology (装备指挥技术学院), which inwards 2007 sent a specialist inwards antisatellite weaponry to the University of Michigan using civilian cover.33
The book of peer-reviewed literature co-authored yesteryear PLA researchers as well as overseas researchers is a stone oil indicator of the flat of PLA collaboration at each university. Figure 3 shows that the leading countries for PLA collaboration yesteryear this mensurate for 2017 were, inwards order, the US, the UK, Canada, Commonwealth of Australia as well as Germany, indicating that they’re likely to last the primary destinations for PLA scientists studying abroad. Singapore, Sweden as well as the Netherlands are other major destinations for PLA scientists. Over the yesteryear decade, Commonwealth of Australia has been engaged inwards the highest flat of this collaboration alongside the Five Eyes countries per capita, at half-dozen times the flat inwards the US.
It’s also possible to guess the number of PLA scientists sent to each province since 2007, based on the to a higher seat findings.34 Approximately 500 Chinese military machine scientists were sent to each of the UK as well as the US, roughly 300 each to Commonwealth of Australia as well as Canada as well as to a greater extent than than 100 each to Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany as well as Singapore. Hundreds to a greater extent than take away hold been sent to other countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Nihon as well as France.
Figure 4, using the same dataset, shows the top 10 universities exterior Communist People's Republic of China for PLA collaboration. Nanyang Technological University inwards Singapore has the highest flat of PLA collaboration, followed closely yesteryear UNSW inwards Australia. Other universities inwards Canada, Australia, the UK as well as the Netherlands also engage inwards high levels of collaboration with the PLA.35
Figure 4: The top 10 universities exterior of Communist People's Republic of China for PLA collaboration, equally measured yesteryear the number of peer-reviewed publications, 2006 to 2017
The PLA’s links to universities across the globe go beyond pupil admissions. The Chinese military, through its ain universities as well as enquiry institutions, has worked to build relationships with overseas universities as well as leading overseas researchers. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 2014 document published yesteryear NUDT claimed that the academy had recruited twenty unusual nationals equally teachers as well as ‘established academic relationships with over 100 universities as well as enquiry units inwards over 50 countries as well as regions’.36
Scientists from Australia, the UK as well as the U.S. are listed equally potential doctoral supervisors for NUDT students inwards 2018.37
NUDT has also built ties with overseas universities at the institutional level. For example, NUDT’s Quantum Information Interdisciplinary Talent Training Program cooperates with the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.38 The People’s Daily claimed that, inwards add-on to agreements with Oxford as well as Cambridge, NUDT has established ‘overseas study bases’ at institutions including Harvard University.39 New Zealand’s Massey University also signed a memorandum of understanding with NUDT inwards 2008.40
Maintaining loyalty to the CCP
The PLA, equally the armed wing of the CCP, insists that all overseas political party members strictly abide yesteryear ‘external telephone substitution dependent standards’.41 According to the PLA Daily, ‘the openness of internationally expanding talent tillage does non stand upwards for a “relaxation”, as well as nosotros sure cannot “let go”.’42 General Yang Xuejun has also specifically warned of the demand to carefully create make military machine secrets piece increasing the university’s openness.43
Those permitted to study overseas go through intensive grooming prior to their difference as well as are ‘all budding shoots with goodness grades as well as strong potential for innovation’.44 Alongside academic credentials, political credentials are also of key importance for military machine scientists hoping to study abroad. The PLA Daily warns that, if students sent overseas ‘develop issues with their politics as well as ideology, the consequences would last inconceivable (后果不堪设想)’.45 NUDTtherefore appears to sponsor only CCP members for overseas study as well as industrial plant hard to maintain their loyalty to the political party as well as negate ‘all kinds of harmful ideologies’.46 Reportedly, all 200 students as well as researchers from NUDT who were studying or visiting overseas inwards 2013 were political party members.47
The People’s Daily claimed inwards 2013 that students sent overseas yesteryear NUDT had established 8 political party branches overseas as well as organised events for political party members, so that ‘personnel studying abroad would maintain their convictions rock-solid’ (坚守信念如磐).48 Another study from 2015 claimed that NUDT’s College of Optoelectric Science as well as Engineering lone had established 10 overseas political party branches.49 More recent reports hint that such branches are soundless beingness established. For example, political party media reported inwards Oct 2017 that students from i of NUDT’s colleges had established a WeChat grouping for the college’s to a greater extent than than thirty students overseas to study the 19th Party Congress.50 ‘Their blood-red hearts,’ the study concluded, ‘look to the party.’
Party branches take away hold also been used to coerce overseas Chinese scholars. An investigation yesteryear Foreign Policy found that some visiting students from Chinese universities who formed political party branches abroad were asked to study on whatsoever subversive opinions held yesteryear their classmates.51 It’s likely that similar kinds of pressure level are exerted on overseas PLA researchers.
Online communication forms an of import component subdivision of PLA efforts to maintain dependent alongside overseas personnel as well as is complemented yesteryear in-person contact. One study stated that students from NUDT’s College of Optoelectric Science as well as Engineering ‘regularly chat with College leaders yesteryear video telephone phone as well as telephone substitution emails with NUDT academic supervisors as well as pupil cadres to hash out their thoughts, telephone substitution ideas on academic matters, as well as clarify points of interest’.52Regulations on the political pedagogy of overseas students yesteryear the same NUDTcollege include provisions for ‘overseas inspection’ as well as for students to render to Communist People's Republic of China inwards the middle of their study for ‘remedial education’.
One NUDT professor used a trip to an overseas conference equally an chance to run across 8 NUDT scientists studying inwards the part to ‘pass on the greetings as well as requests of political party organisations’. The regulations also include provisions for ‘joint pedagogy as well as interaction with families’, which may imply that pressure level on the seat unit of measurement members of overseas PLA scientists is used to maintain discipline.53
The unopen scout that the PLA keeps on its overseas scientists helps ensure that all those sent abroad render to the Chinese military. NUDT, for example, requires that those applying to study abroad demonstrate their intent to render to ‘serve the structure of the nation, national defence as well as the military’.54
The PLA Daily claimed inwards 2013 that all the students whom NUDT had sent abroad inwards recent years returned on fourth dimension to ‘become key forces inwards their go units’.55
Institutes that don’t exist: deception yesteryear PLA scientists
While most scientists sent abroad yesteryear the PLA appear to last opened upwards well-nigh which institutions they come upwards from, this study has identified 2 dozen novel cases of PLA scientists travelling abroad using encompass to obscure their military machine affiliations. In at to the lowest degree 17 of these cases, PLA scientists used encompass to move to Australia. These scientists usage diverse kinds of cover, ranging from the usage of misleading historical names for their institutions to the usage of names of non-existent institutions.
Features of deception yesteryear the PLA
An article from 2002 on the website of a Chinese overseas study way offers insights into the usage of cover. In response to a inquiry asking whether having graduated from a military machine establishment would acquit on one’s powerfulness to acquire an overseas visa, the fellowship responded:
Many military machine colleges as well as military machine units externally take away hold mutual names (民间称呼) that don’t reveal their military machine characteristics. NUDT, for example, is externally known equally Changsha Institute of Technology. This is the best way [to avoid having your visa application rejected].56
The Changsha Institute of Technology was a PLA establishment subsumed yesteryear NUDTin 1975.57 While the quote to a higher seat doesn’t come upwards from an official source, it at to the lowest degree indicates how these unsophisticated but nonetheless effective covers are understood equally tools for hiding one’s military machine background.
Besides using non-existent institutions with innocuous-sounding names equally cover, PLA members also claim to last from existent civilian institutions inwards the same regions equally their military machine units. New Zealand MP Yang Jian, for example, who taught tidings officers at the PLA Foreign Languages Institute inwards Luoyang, claimed inwards his New Zealand residency application to take away hold worked at Luoyang University.58 Before moving to New Zealand inwards 1999, Yang received an Australian Government assistance scholarship to study at the Australian National University, earning a master’s marking as well as doctorate inwards international relations. During that period, he interned at the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence as well as Trade, as well as headed the Canberra Chinese Students as well as Scholars Association, which retains intimate ties to the Chinese Embassy to this day.59 Yang told media, ‘the scheme asked me to usage the partner university,’ referring to Luoyang University.60
A number of PLA scientists using encompass to move abroad take away hold created LinkedIn profiles using their encompass institutions, which may take away hold been used to shore upwards their claimed affiliations piece overseas.61
The usage of encompass appears to last managed differently yesteryear each institution, some of which usage encompass far to a greater extent than often than others.62 Cover is also non used consistently within each institution. As described below, PLA Information Engineering University (PLAIEU) researchers take away hold both used encompass as well as openly stated their affiliation at the same conferences. It’s unclear whether this indicates that the usage of encompass is upwards to the discretion of each researcher or peradventure that it relates to the sensitivity of a researcher’s go or seat inwards the PLA.
NUDT appears to no longer usage the ‘Changsha Institute of Technology’ equally cover, but it engages inwards a dissimilar form of deception. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 document published yesteryear NUDTfor students hoping to study abroad advises them that, when providing documentation inwards their applications to unusual institutions, ‘military as well as political courses tin give the axe last excluded’ from their academic records.63 This appears designed to mislead overseas authorities, universities as well as researchers yesteryear downplaying the extent to which NUDT is a military machine establishment as well as to which these students are military machine scientists.
The Xi’an Research Institute of High Technology
Scientists from the PLA Rocket Force Engineering University (RFEU, 火箭军工程大学)64, a key enquiry base of operations for the PLA Rocket Force, claim to last from the ‘Xi’an Research Institute of High Technology’ (西安高技术研究所), which appears to only be on paper.
At to the lowest degree 5 RFEU scientists claiming to last from the Xi’an Research Institute take away hold travelled overseas equally visiting scholars, including i of the PLA’s leading missile experts, Major General Hu Changhua (胡昌华), as well as iii of his unopen associates at RFEU. General Hu (Figure 5), who heads RFEU’s Missile Testing as well as Control Simulation Experimental Teaching Centre, visited the University of Duisburg–Essen inwards Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany for iv months inwards 2008.65 It’s unclear what he worked on inwards Germany, equally he didn’t release whatsoever papers piece there, but his go for the PLA focuses on flying command systems as well as error diagnosis for missiles.66
Two RFEU scientists who oft release with Hu, Zhou Zhijie (周志杰)67 as well as Wang Zhaoqiang (王兆强),68 were visiting scholars at universities inwards England; they claim inwards their English linguistic communication publications to last from the Xi’an Research Institute.69
Figure 5: Major General Hu Changhua, profiled yesteryear Communist People's Republic of China Central Television’s military machine affairs channel inwards 2016:
‘Right straight off I’m a professor at RFEU as well as caput of the Military Key Lab on Missile Testing as well as Control Technology.’
Figure 5: Major General Hu Changhua, profiled yesteryear Communist People's Republic of China Central Television’s military machine affairs channel inwards 2016: ‘Right straight off I’m a professor at RFEU as well as caput of the Military Key Lab on Missile Testing as well as Control Technology.’
Source: CCTV, 28 Oct 2016, YouTube.
Hu Xiaoxiang: a instance study
Identifying the Xi’an Research Institute of High Technology equally a encompass institute helps shed low-cal on the Jan 2015 expulsion from Kingdom of Norway of a Chinese scientist as well as his supervisor, a dual citizen of Federal Republic of Federal Republic of Germany as well as Iran. The expulsion came after Norwegian authorities determined that the go of the Chinese scientist, afterwards named inwards courtroom equally Hu Xiaoxiang (扈晓翔), could last used to develop hypersonic cruise missiles (Figure 6).70
Figure 6: Hu Xiaoxiang
Hu wrote 5 papers with his supervisor at the University of Agder, all of which listed the Xi’an Research Institute equally his affiliation. The papers focused on air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, which move at over 5 times the speed of audio as well as ‘can send to a greater extent than payload than ordinary flying vehicles’.71 Hu’s go was supported yesteryear a Norwegian Government grant for offshore air current loose energy research.72
Besides his affiliation with the Xi’an Research Institute, there’s a large torso of evidence tying Hu to RFEU. The website of RFEU’s missile enquiry optic states that Hu Xiaoxiang won an accolade inwards 2014 for his PhD thesis on hypersonic aircraft, supervised yesteryear General Hu Changhua.73 The website also says that inwards 2014 he received 250,000 renminbi (A$50,000) from the Chinese Government for a three-year enquiry projection on hypersonic aircraft (Figure 7).74 In 2016, he was described equally a lecturer at the centre, which received fourteen awards for missile enquiry betwixt 2010 as well as 2014.75 In some publications, Hu also listed the Harbin Institute of Technology, a civilian academy heavily engaged inwards military machine research, equally a minute affiliation.76
Relations betwixt Communist People's Republic of China as well as Kingdom of Norway were seat on H2O ice when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Chinese republic activist Liu Xiaobo inwards 2010, as well as the Chinese Government was quick to assault Kingdom of Norway for Hu’s expulsion.77 Only inwards Dec 2016 did the 2 countries ‘normalise’ diplomatic relations. Public statements yesteryear Norwegian authorities didn’t explicate the Chinese scientist’s military machine affiliation or refer the Xi’an Research Institute, equally the information was likely classified.
Figure 7: Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 newspaper published yesteryear Hu Xiaoxiang presently after his expulsion from Norway, stating an affiliation with RFEU inwards the Chinese version of the abstract but the Xi’an Research Institute inwards the English linguistic communication version.
A few months later, inwards September 2015, a courtroom overturned the expulsions. Hu’s lawyer stated after the trial that ‘there is no evidence inwards the instance that my customer is component subdivision of enquiry collaboration on missiles as well as weapons with China.’78 The University of Agder lauded the determination equally a win for academic freedom.
The Norwegian Government afterwards successfully appealed the overturning of Hu’s supervisor’s expulsion. However, it’s unclear whether whatsoever appeal was made inwards Hu’s ain case, which hasn’t been made publicly available.79 Neither the Xi’an Research Institute, Hu Changhua nor RFEU was mentioned inwards the judge’s ruling on the German-Iranian supervisor’s instance or whatsoever coverage of the expulsions.
The Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping
Among the xl Chinese military machine scientists listed equally presenting papers at the ninth International Symposium on Mobile Mapping Technology, nine claimed to last from an establishment with no apparent military machine affiliation.80 Most of the other thirty military machine scientists at the conference, hosted yesteryear UNSW inwards Dec 2015, were openly from NUDT as well as a enquiry institute of Communist People's Republic of China North Industries Group Corporation (also known equally Norinco Group), China’s largest arms manufacturer; the balance came mainly from the PLA Information Engineering University.
The nine claimed to last from the Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping. This institute, which was officially known equally the PLA Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping, no longer exists, having been subsumed inwards 1999 yesteryear PLAIEU—itself a major instrumentalist inwards cyber operations as well as a key grooming the world for signals tidings officers.81 The Zhengzhou Institute appears to alive on equally encompass for PLA scientists interacting with foreigners. Nearly 300 peer-reviewed papers take away hold been published yesteryear authors claiming to last from the institute.82
The usage of the Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping equally encompass doesn’t halt at international conferences. Numerous examples of visiting scholars claiming to last from at that topographic point take away hold been uncovered for this report. They include Zhu Xinhui (朱新慧), a lecturer at PLAIEU specialising inwards navigation technology, who visited UNSW from 2015 to 2016.83 In numerous periodical articles as well as inwards the computer programme of the mobile mapping conference mentioned above, however, she is described equally beingness from the Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping.84
Guo Jianfeng (郭建锋), an associate professor at PLAIEU, visited Curtin University for a twelvemonth inwards 2014. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 specialist on navigation scheme information processing, Guo was described on the website of Curtin University’s Global Navigation Satellite Systems Research Centre equally beingness on ‘sabbatical go out from the Department of Geodesy of the Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping, Zhengzhou, China’.85
The Zhengzhou Information Science as well as Technology Institute
Another encompass institute, the Zhengzhou Information Science as well as Technology Institute (ZISTI), which appears to be only on paper, has also been widely used yesteryear PLAIEU scientists to release enquiry as well as move overseas. More than 1,300 pieces of peer-reviewed literature take away hold been authored yesteryear individuals claiming to last from ZISTI.86
One newspaper inwards a Chinese-language periodical yesteryear a PLAIEU researcher, which includes an English linguistic communication version of the abstract as well as writer information, clearly shows that ZISTI is a encompass institute (Figure 8). The paper’s Chinese text describes the outset writer equally affiliated with PLAIEU, but the English linguistic communication version describes the
same writer equally affiliated with ZISTI.87 Nearly all of the authors sampled who claimed an affiliation with ZISTI could last shown to last working at PLAIEU.
Figure 8: Chinese as well as English linguistic communication versions of a newspaper published yesteryear a PLAIEU scientist, demonstrating the usage of the Zhengzhou Information Science as well as Technology Institute equally cover.
Scientists claiming to last from ZISTI take away hold attended international conferences both within as well as exterior China. For example, vii researchers affiliated with ZISTI are listed inwards the computer programme of a conference on signal processing at the Gold Coast inwards Commonwealth of Australia inwards 2014. Experts from American, Australian as well as Korean
defence enquiry agencies were also inwards attendance.88
As with the Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying as well as Mapping, ZISTI has been used equally encompass for PLA scientists travelling overseas equally visiting scholars. For example, Zhu Yijun (朱义君) is an associate professor at PLAIEU specialising inwards signals engineering.89 Claiming to last from ZISTI, inwards 2011 he visited Canada’s McMaster University, where he worked on wireless communications engineering with wide-ranging military machine applications.90
PLAIEU scientists claiming to last from ZISTI take away hold also travelled to the U.S. equally visiting scholars as well as for conferences.91
Espionage as well as intellectual holding theft
In add-on to their overt activities, PLA researchers, especially those who haven’t been forthcoming well-nigh their military machine affiliations, may engage inwards espionage or steal intellectual holding piece overseas. The PLA engages inwards such high levels of espionage that inwards 2014 the U.S. Government took the unusual stair of publicly indicting 5 Chinese military machine hackers.92 Military scientists abroad who regularly communicate with superiors inwards China, have visits yesteryear superiors piece overseas as well as render abode inwards the middle of their fourth dimension abroad for ‘remedial education’, equally described inwards the examples outlined above, offering condom as well as convenient channels for Chinese tidings agencies to access sensitive information from overseas.93
Amateur collectors with STEM expertise take away hold been implicated inwards a high proportion of intellectual holding theft as well as espionage cases involving China.94Scientists as well as engineers involved inwards military machine enquiry projects, piece they mightiness non take away hold received formal grooming equally spies, are uniquely qualified to seat as well as exfiltrate valuable information to overcome specific hurdles inwards the evolution of novel technologies.
Should universities collaborate with the PLA?
Assessing the costs as well as benefits of enquiry collaboration with the PLA shows that it comes with important safety risks piece offering unclear benefits. It isn’t inwards the national involvement of most of the countries examined inwards this study to assist build the capabilities of a contender military. Other forms of cooperation with the Chinese military, such equally articulation exercises as well as exchanges that build understanding as well as communication, are largely beneficial but distinct from the kinds of enquiry collaboration addressed inwards this report.
The benefits of enquiry collaboration with the Chinese military machine are hard to measure, but could include the following:
Training PLA scientists as well as working with them leads to scientific developments as well as published enquiry piece attracting some funding.
A pocket-sized proportion of collaboration with the PLA appears sufficiently transparent as well as falls into areas of primal enquiry such that the benefits may outweigh safety risks. One possible illustration is cooperation betwixt the American as well as Chinese governments on the multinational Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, which involves NUDT.
A number of benefits ordinarily associated with enquiry collaboration with militaries as well as unusual countries haven’t been observed inwards PLA collaboration:
PLA collaboration doesn’t atomic number 82 to long-term improvement inwards the talent of institutions as well as countries accepting PLA scientists, equally the PLA claims that 100 per cent of scientists sent abroad yesteryear NUDT inwards the years before 2013 returned to Communist People's Republic of China on time.95
The forms of PLA collaboration studied inwards this study don’t promote understanding as well as relationships betwixt militaries, equally they aren’t military machine exchanges as well as often aren’t overt.
While overseas, PLA scientists remain nether the unopen scout of the CCP, which industrial plant to ensure that they remain loyal as well as aren’t influenced yesteryear their sense living inwards gratis societies.
It’s improbable that PLA scientists working with overseas civilian researchers would portion with or let on to those researchers whatsoever important enquiry breakthroughs of military machine value.
There are many risks as well as costs associated with electrical flow approaches to grooming as well as collaborating with PLA scientists:
Training PLA scientists improves the scientific talent as well as knowledge of a military machine treated yesteryear many equally a strategic competitor.96
PLA scientists often engage inwards deception inwards their interactions with unusual institutions as well as their staff, making it hard for those collaborating with them to select appropriate safety precautions.
PLA scientists could get together tidings as well as steal engineering piece they’re overseas, especially if they’re hiding their military machine affiliations.
Failures to address concerns well-nigh PLA collaboration as well as to develop policies differentiating it from wider engagement with Communist People's Republic of China jeopardy tarring all enquiry ties with Communist People's Republic of China with the same brush.
Research collaboration with the PLA contributes to engineering that may last used against Commonwealth of Australia as well as its partners inwards a conflict or for tidings collection.
Universities with ties to the PLA jeopardy eroding trust betwixt themselves as well as funders of research, such equally defence enquiry agencies, scientific agencies as well as industry.
Universities jeopardy reputational harm yesteryear collaborating with a non-allied military.
Public funding worth millions of dollars is beingness used for collaboration with a non-allied military, with piffling to no input from taxpayers.
Current policy as well as legislation are inadequate
Export controls are the primary machinery yesteryear which countries seek to create make the provide of sensitive engineering as well as goods to overseas entities. However, the powerfulness of export command laws to effectively create make the risks posed yesteryear PLA enquiry collaboration is limited. In Australia, few cases of enquiry or cooperation reverse to our national interests are believed to take away hold been prevented through the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012.97 The electrical flow review of the Act offers an chance to address some of these limitations.
There are a few reasons for these difficulties. First, intangible transfer of technology—the primary shape of engineering transfer taking seat through the kinds of collaboration studied inwards this paper— is extremely hard to command inwards exercise because it doesn’t involve the export of physical goods.98 Second, the Act doesn’t regulate the provide of controlled technology, which includes instruction as well as training, to individuals inwards Commonwealth of Australia fifty-fifty if they’re PLA members. Third, some of this collaboration covers emerging technologies, such equally quantum physics, that are of import but non included inwards the Defence as well as Strategic Goods List, equally their applications aren’t yet fully known. Export command lists tend to last tedious to contain emerging technologies, so regulatory powerfulness tin give the axe come upwards good after issues go apparent. Fourth, the Act doesn’t regulate the provide of controlled engineering yesteryear Australians when they’re exterior of Australia, such equally grooming given to PLA members yesteryear Australian academics visiting China.
Recommendations
The PLA’s collaboration with unusual universities is growing as well as the expansion of international ties remains i of NUDT’s priorities.99 The developments outlined inwards this study warrant to a greater extent than attending as well as dissimilar approaches from those currently employed yesteryear most governments as well as universities. Responses to PLA collaboration demand to last informed yesteryear clear authorities policies as well as displace beyond export controls, using the total make of tools available to governments as well as universities. The Australian Government, for example, tin give the axe make to a greater extent than to go inwards partnership with our enquiry sector to advance scientific progress piece protecting national safety as well as ensuring that relevant enquiry doesn’t advance the Chinese military’s capabilities.
Based on the findings of this report, it is recommended that governments pursue the next measures:
Deepen discussions within authorities on PLA collaboration to create upwards one's heed how it relates to the national interest
Determine what kinds of collaboration with the PLA should last farther controlled or fifty-fifty prohibited as well as flora clear policy on engagement with PLA enquiry organisations as well as personnel.
Foster international discussions on PLA collaboration to develop multilateral responses.
Develop interagency responses to PLA collaboration to ensure amend integration of efforts yesteryear defence as well as export command agencies, tidings agencies as well as immigration agencies.
Share information well-nigh cases as well as trends inwards PLA collaboration, peculiarly cases of deception yesteryear PLA scientists, with partners across the globe.
Increase communication as well as outreach to universities, companies as well as publics
Establish a commission bringing together members of the national safety community as well as academy leaders. This commission could serve equally a forum to portion key information as well as foster a to a greater extent than cooperative working environs piece also providing a infinite for the academy sector as well as national safety community to amend empathise each other’s perspectives. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Security Higher Education Advisory Board is a useful model to emulate.100
Ensure that companies funding enquiry at universities are aware of whatsoever PLA collaboration as well as empathise hereafter measures to command such collaboration.
Politicians as well as senior world servants should amend articulate what’s inwards the national involvement as well as publicly explicate why advancing China’s military machine capabilities isn’t inwards the national interest.101
Improve the scrutiny of visa applications yesteryear unusual military machine personnel
Enhance as well as amend coordinate efforts yesteryear authorities agencies such equally Australia’s Department of Home Affairs, Department of Defence as well as Australian Security Intelligence Organisation to ensure that military machine scientists applying for visas are identified as well as properly vetted.102
Create a listing of Chinese as well as other non-allied military machine as well as military-linked enquiry institutions, including civilian universities heavily engaged inwards military machine research, for usage yesteryear immigration officials.
Re-examine export controls
The Australian Government should consider farther controlling engineering transfer to sure goal users. Transfers of controlled engineering to PLA members as well as civilians heavily engaged inwards military machine enquiry should last restricted regardless of their geographical location.
The Australian Government should create a listing of entities posing national safety risks that are dependent to special export licence requirements, modelled on the US’s Entity List.
The authorities should assist universities educate as well as provide resources for staff with export command compliance duties.
Work continuously with experienced scientists inwards emerging engineering fields to create upwards one's heed whether as well as how emerging technologies should last controlled.
Ensure that universities are fully complying with controls relating to the intangible transfer of engineering inwards their collaboration with the PLA.
Regulate scientific grooming given to unusual military machine personnel
Introduce legislation that draws on the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations’ rules on defence services, which require those offering grooming to unusual military machine personnel to outset have a waiver from the U.S. Department of Defense.103This could select the shape of an expansion of the Defence Trade Controls Act that restricts engineering transfer to members of sure governments as well as organisations.
Regulate the usage of authorities resources inwards collaboration with the Chinese military machine as well as other non-allied militaries
Update internal policies inwards authorities enquiry institutions such equally CSIRO to bound or ban collaboration with non-allied militaries, peculiarly inwards dual-use areas.
Funding bodies such equally the Australian Research Council should prohibit funding inwards some areas from beingness used inwards collaboration with non-allied militaries.
Carefully evaluate whatsoever collaboration with PLA scientists on government-funded projects, peculiarly defence projects.
Increase authorities as well as other funding for enquiry inwards strategic enquiry areas
Fields such equally artificial tidings as well as quantum physics should have to a greater extent than authorities funding to ensure that talent as well as ideas rest inwards Australia.
Universities working inwards strategic enquiry areas should last encouraged to collaborate with allied military machine as well as defence countries rather than non-allied militaries.
Limit problematic forms of unusual investment inwards strategic enquiry areas
Investment yesteryear Chinese defence companies such equally Communist People's Republic of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation into strategically of import fields should last prohibited.104
Universities should also pursue the next measures:
Build understanding of PLA collaboration
Produce credible as well as thorough assessments of the extent of PLA collaboration on campuses.
Develop processes for managing PLA collaboration so that safety risks tin give the axe last identified as well as resolved
Raise awareness alongside employees
Ensure that those interacting with members of non-allied militaries select appropriate safety precautions.
Exercise greater oversight of visiting scholar as well as pupil application
Develop internal policies on collaboration with unusual military machine personnel
Require employees to have blessing before collaborating with or grooming members of non-allied militaries.
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