Imperial College To Shut Joint Research Ventures with Chinese Defence Firms (theguardian.com) 18
schwit1 writes: Imperial College will shut down two major research centres sponsored by Chinese aerospace and defence companies amid a crackdown on academic collaborations with China, the Guardian has learned.
The Avic Centre for Structural Design and Manufacturing is a long-running partnership with China's leading civilian and military aviation supplier, which has provided more than $6m to research cutting-edge aerospace materials. The second centre is run jointly with Biam, a subsidiary of another state-owned aerospace and defence company, which has contributed $4.5m for projects on high-performance batteries, jet engine components and impact-resistant aircraft windshields. The centres' stated goals are to advance civilian aerospace technologies, but critics have repeatedly warned that the research could also advance China's military ambitions.
Now Imperial has confirmed the two centres will be shut by the end of the year after the rejection of two licence applications to the government's Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), which oversees the sharing of sensitive research with international partners. The closures follow a warning in July by the heads of MI5 and the FBI of the espionage threat posed by China to UK universities, and highlight the government's hardening attitude on the issue.
"You can say with a high degree of confidence that this decision has been taken because the government is of the view that continuing licensing would enable the military development in China, which is viewed as a threat to security," said Sam Armstrong, director of communications at the Henry Jackson Society thinktank. "The government has made it clear to universities that there is an overall shift in the weather such that these collaborations are no longer possible."
The Avic Centre for Structural Design and Manufacturing is a long-running partnership with China's leading civilian and military aviation supplier, which has provided more than $6m to research cutting-edge aerospace materials. The second centre is run jointly with Biam, a subsidiary of another state-owned aerospace and defence company, which has contributed $4.5m for projects on high-performance batteries, jet engine components and impact-resistant aircraft windshields. The centres' stated goals are to advance civilian aerospace technologies, but critics have repeatedly warned that the research could also advance China's military ambitions.
Now Imperial has confirmed the two centres will be shut by the end of the year after the rejection of two licence applications to the government's Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), which oversees the sharing of sensitive research with international partners. The closures follow a warning in July by the heads of MI5 and the FBI of the espionage threat posed by China to UK universities, and highlight the government's hardening attitude on the issue.
"You can say with a high degree of confidence that this decision has been taken because the government is of the view that continuing licensing would enable the military development in China, which is viewed as a threat to security," said Sam Armstrong, director of communications at the Henry Jackson Society thinktank. "The government has made it clear to universities that there is an overall shift in the weather such that these collaborations are no longer possible."
Now that the technology horse is out ... (Score:2)
let's close the barn door.
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It's long past time we've started to view the Chinese for what they are.
They are not the friends of the countries of the west.
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They are not the friends of the countries of the west.
Which bit of the west?
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art... [thetimes.co.uk]
Anyhoo, I thoroughly agree and am just baffled by the sheer scale f special status China seems to get. For example China has incredibly strict rules about foreign owned businesses operating over there, yet no one seems interested in reciprocal rules. So we get the Chinese state run TikTok... yeah yeah I know it's run by ByteDance, but we all know quite how much influence the state has on large compan
Re: Now that the technology horse is out ... (Score:2)
I don't think it is Marks & Spencers.
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Yep that's what I meant, marks and Spencer.
A very strong brand with nice stores, good locations, good products and great mindshare who keep making just astoundingly poor decisions.
Re: Now that the technology horse is out ... (Score:1)
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At the time lots of people thought it sounded like a terrible deal, but greedy capitalists eyed China's cheap labour and potentially vast consumer base and they decided it was worth it.
We were told that the best way to turn brutal authoritarians into good democracies was to trade with them, because the peo
Another 5 collaborations have been quietly termina (Score:5, Informative)
In addition to the two centres due to shut at Imperial, another five collaborations have been quietly terminated in the past three years – all but one of those in the UK highlighted as “high risk” [theguardian.com]in a 2019 analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
Why was this allowed in the first place? (Score:4, Insightful)
China was our 2nd military competitor behind Russia*. Why should we be spending giant bucks on our military, yet help China with theirs? It's like paying street cleaners to poop on the street and then clean it up.
* Thanks to Ukraine, Russia slipped to #2 or 3.
Re:Why was this allowed in the first place? (Score:5, Insightful)
get rich quick boomers and yuppies wanted to exploit slave labor to maximize profit
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Which de-facto slaves, US student workers*, Chinese workers, or both?
* https://isphdforme.com/reasons... [isphdforme.com]
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As to why?
For those who haven't been paying attention, the Chinese cold war is less than a decade old, only starting after Xi took power and after the Chinese economy grew beyond all expectation to near parity with the US economy.
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We entered a semi-cold-war state with them upon Tiananmen square. And they've been harassing Taiwan for quite a while. If they were not a threat, why did we have such a big military back then just after the Soviet Union collapsed?
Paranoia (Score:1)
If you are paranoid enough, anything from better agriculture to music can advance military ambitions. Paranoia advances military ambitions.
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> music can advance military ambitions
The Baby Shark ear-worm has been shown to trigger convulsions and twerking in our military personal.
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If you are paranoid enough, anything from better agriculture to music can advance military ambitions. Paranoia advances military ambitions.
More like history. There's nothing wrong with a bit of paranoia, especially if it's historically informed.
While presenting a "friendly" face to the others in Europe and the rest of the world, Post World War I Germany embarked on building the Autobahn. Propped up Lufthansa with a variety of advanced aircraft. Made a gigantic public works program not too different from our own WPA.
The Autobahn wasn't to transport Vater und Mutter und 1.5 Kinder at 100 kph in their little KdF Wagen. That was just a side e
Collaborate with the EU instead! (Score:3)