Bethany Allen explains her investigation into a British university’s joint venture campus in China and the risks of critical tech collaboration.

Recently an ASPI team led by our head of China investigations and analysis Bethany Allen published a report on a joint venture university campus between Xi’an Jiaotong University in China and Liverpool University in Britain. Their findings raise serious questions about research collaboration into sensitive technologies, including those with military applications. 

In today’s episode, Bethany talks through the findings, including the joint university’s partnerships and close links with entities sanctioned by Britain, the US, the EU and other nations for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and helping with China’s military modernisation.

She explains the risks that these partnerships create, how widespread they might be, and what more needs to be done by universities themselves by way of due diligence into their partnerships, but also the need for governments to set clearer rules and guidelines about what defines unacceptable risk.

Read the article A British university’s technology entanglements with Russia and China, by Bethany Allen, Danielle Cave and Adam Ziogas.