Academics and students of Chinese studies in Britain are being subject to harassment, surveillance and pressure to self-censor as they seek to avoid disruption to funding, a survey of universities by a transparency group has concluded.
The findings by UK-China Transparency coincide with new government guidance stating that universities may be breaching rules by having partnerships with foreign governments that require academic staff to pass ideological tests – for example, by hosting Confucius Institutes.
Academics working on topics that are politically sensitive to the Chinese Communist party (CCP) reported instances of harassment from colleagues and pressure from university administrators related to the financial consequences of damaging relations with China.
One academic involved in sensitive research stopped teaching after experiencing harassment from a visiting scholar from China, who whispered “we’re watching you” in one case and interrogated the academic about their personal history at another event. Another scholar experienced a severe campaign of online harassment.
A respondent stated that their Chinese students had confided in him that they had been asked to spy on campus events by Chinese police, and another said they were told by Chinese students that surveillance was omnipresent and that students were interviewed by officials on their return to China.
The results suggest that the academic landscape is mixed, with some institutions demonstrating higher resilience and supporting scholars working on sensitive topics than others.
They are based on 50 responses to a questionnaire circulated last year among China studies scholars working at UK universities. Nearly two-thirds – 64% – of respondents thought their universities’ financial dependency on international students from China affected administrators’ “sense of the importance of relationships with the Chinese government”, compared with 16% who felt that this was not the case.
Twenty-two per cent said they had been told by a manager or administrator that relations with China were a factor in their institution’s decision-making, and a further 10% said they believed they were, while 52% said they were not. And 38% thought these concerns made it “more difficult to study or conduct original investigative research on sensitive issues”, compared with 46% who said this was not the case.
One academic said they had faced pressure to remove teaching elements that could offend nationalist Chinese students and had been asked by funders whether planned research would offend the Chinese government. The same academic said their university’s recruitment team had received threats from the Chinese government in relation to their sensitive research.
Another respondent said their faculty had been opposed to a sensitive event and another gave a secondhand account of an incident at another university where a research project had been cancelled and its funding returned because of Chinese government pressure on the university’s management.
Other respondents argued that specialising in sensitive research work created opportunities, with one respondent suggesting that in the current environment “a strongly anti-Chinese stance” could create “a stifling effect on those who wish to discuss nuance”. Another respondent said that “sensitive topics are welcomed by some institutions but not others”.
A Chinese embassy spokesperson said: “The relevant report is completely groundless and absurd. China has always adhered to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, and respects freedom of speech and academic freedom in the UK and other countries. China consistently requires its citizens, including overseas students, to abide by local laws and regulations.
“The relevant parties should remain committed to actions that promote educational and cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK, rather than the opposite.”
David Tobin, a lecturer in east Asian studies at the University of Sheffield, said the report was “addressing long-term pervasive issues in British universities that I’ve encountered since 2007”.
He said he had experienced one incident in a previous job where a senior colleague invited representatives from the Chinese consulate and Chinese state media journalists to visit. After being left to wander around the building unattended, he said they entered his working area and observed the sensitive material he was working with on his computer screen.
“The key challenge academics like myself researching subjects that are considered sensitive by the CCP is that our access to the field is blocked if we write about anything that the party state does not approve of,” Tobin said.
“Chinese scholars here are as afraid as they would be in China because they are not protected when they are at home and their families are harassed inside the PRC [China] if they write about the party system.”
