Imperial College’s controversial relationship with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic) could place it at risk of "secondary sanctions" from the US, experts have warned.
Avic, one of the university’s longstanding research partners, is one of 89 Chinese companies set be blocked from accessing US technology due to its ties to the Chinese military, according to a declaration seen by Reuters.
Since 2012, Imperial College London has worked with Avic, the main supplier of aviation technology to the People’s Liberation Army, on an aircraft design lab known as the Avic Centre for Structural Design and Manufacture.
At the centre, academics work alongside the Chinese company to conduct research into aircraft design and manufacturing technologies that is then used by Avic commercially.
Experts warned on Monday that there could be the risk of restriction on any universities with ties to US sanctioned-entities.
Ross Peel, a research and knowledge transfer manager at King’s College, London, said: “If you’re a university the question is: do I maintain this partnership potentially at the expense of all US business? That’s not an easy equation to weigh up.”
An Avic research centre opened at Imperial College in 2012
This is not the first time Imperial has faced scrutiny for its partnership with Avic. In 2014, one of the Chinese firm’s subsidiaries was placed on a US watch list due to alleged links to Iran’s ballistic missile programme, prompting experts to question the tie-up.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has previously warned over Avic’s “long history of Sino-Russian defence co-operation” and said it was “a regular attendee at international arms expositions”.
Researchers in the Avic centre at Imperial College are understood to be working on “fundamental research” for Avic, rather than applied research, which entails finding solutions to specific problems. Research is conducted for civil aviation rather than to be used for Avic’s military division.
There is no suggestion of impropriety, or that any Imperial academics, students or research projects were involved with or supporting the Chinese military in any way.
Some previously involved with the project have, however, raised questions over the level of transparency about how their findings are used by the state-backed entity.
One former researcher on the project told the Telegraph that, whilst research findings were all published, it was “less clear where your work was going” than in other research groups. Another spoke of an “ugly” culture among academics to want to receive as much recognition as possible, saying many were not overly concerned with where funding for their research projects was coming from.
Insiders, however, say that those at Imperial College had gone to huge lengths to make sure the work does not verge into military applications.
A spokesman for Imperial said the “collaboration supports scientific research into fundamental technologies which could help develop lighter, safer and more efficient commercial aircraft worldwide”.
“We are open about this work and conduct no classified research. All of the centre’s scientific outputs are in the public domain and are routinely published in leading international journals.
“Prior to formalising this collaboration Imperial conducted its own due diligence. We worked with and received support from the Export Controls Joint Unit, and we continue to work closely with the UK government. All relationships with third parties are subject to prior and continued review.”
Avic did not respond to requests for comment.
The inclusion of Avic on a new sanction list in the US would be expected, however, to raise fresh questions over any ties between Chinese military organisation and UK research institutions.
The ASPI have said that Britain is one of the regions with the most collaborations with Chinese military organisations.
Bob Seely, MP and member of the foreign affairs select committee, said there was a risk in universities doing some research “especially for non-democratic states”.
“The question is which set of government rules will cover this, because clearly we want universities to be entrepreneurial in their research and most of their research is for the public good. But if it isn’t, there needs to be a more transparent process in which we can give guidance to universities, and requires universities to let the Government know what it is researching and who with, if that research could be in dual-use technology.”
Charles Parton OBE, a former diplomat and China expert, said it would be wrong to rule out all Chinese partnerships entirely. “The default position shouldn’t be no collaboration with China, but all that said, we do need a mechanism which sits separate to the [recently announced] National Security and Investment bill for our academia to go to some government-run organisation with proposals for collaboration, to see if it’s acceptable or not.”
“There’s a long history of naivety, but America is putting restrictions on people, and they may well start saying to universities, they won’t fund their research and that universities need to make a choice. Better than the Government get ahead of this.”
Свежие комментарии