Warning of Chinese espionage: But Danish universities are still sending students to China

This November, Danish students will be able to go on a one-week study trip to Beijing to learn more about how to study for a master’s degree in nanotechnology in China.

The University of Copenhagen’s Nano-Science Center is planning and organizing the trip, where Danish students the country’s universities can get a taste of life as a master’s student in China, participate in lectures, and meet various Chinese collaborators.

The trip is part of the Danish-Chinese research and education collaboration Sino-Danish Center (SDC), which has UCPH rector Henrik C. Wegener as the partnership’s Danish board chairman. The collaboration started in 2010 between all eight Danish universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

You have got to be a bit surprised that SDC has managed to survive at all

Senior Researcher Andreas Bøje Forsby of the Danish Institute for International Studies

From the outset, the objective was to strengthen research collaboration between Denmark and China. This included master’s degree programmes and PhD scholarships at the SDC centre, which is located north of the Chinese capital, Beijing, where both Danish and Chinese students are based.

Danish researchers can furthermore, via SDC, come to China and participate in research projects with some of the leading experts within certain fields.

But according to experts which the University Post has spoken to, the research collaboration with China is full of risks.

Significant shift in the perception of China

According to Andreas Bøje Forsby, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), the SDC is »a child of the golden era in the Danish-Chinese partnership«.

»Back then they [Danish government and institutions, ed.] had far-reaching ambitions for cooperating with the Chinese in many different ways. Also through research,« says Andreas Bøje Forsby.

But since the Danish-Chinese research collaboration started, the West’s relationship with China has changed significantly.

China has been accused of research espionage, and Chinese researchers have collaborated with the Chinese army in connection with projects abroad, also in Denmark.

The Danish news media Politiken has previously revealed how researchers from Aalborg University had, with a Chinese company, helped develop an algorithm that can be used for mass surveillance.

The same news outlet also described how a Chinese talent programme, which according to the FBI is being used for industrial espionage, has been recruiting top researchers in the Danish wind turbine industry for years.

The many revelations prompted the Danish government to set up the so-called URIS committee which would map out the various risks associated with international research collaboration. In 2022, the committee’s recommendations were ready. It had a clear conclusion: »There needs to be a paradigm shift in the Danish approach to international research and innovation,« it stated.

The Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET) drew up a guideline for Danish universities which they felt were not sufficiently aware of the risk of spying from, say, China. And new, stricter, guidelines for international cooperation were introduced.

READ ALSO: University of Copenhagen managers after campaign criticism: The spying threat needs to be taken seriously

PET: China has taken on a very offensive direction

Despite the Danish paradigm shift, the Danish-Chinese collaboration in SDC has not been dropped, and this surprises Andreas Bøje Forsby.

»You have got to be a bit surprised that the SDC has managed to survive this change in direction,« he says.

There is the risk of illegal or unwanted Chinese transfer of knowledge and technology, especially in areas that China prioritises strategically.

The Danish Police Intelligence Service (PET)

Andreas Bøje Forsby stresses that he can see good arguments for research collaboration with China. But that there is also reason to be concerned.

»The Danish intelligence services have been out warning in very explicit terms about the risks that come with this,« Andreas Bøje Forsby says.

The University Post has been in contact with the PET while working on this article to obtain the intelligence service’s assessment of the research collaboration at SDC.

In a written response, it states that the intelligence service cannot speak of specific cases. But it assesses that there is a real threat from a number of countries’ intelligence services to Danish research – including from China.

»As part of its efforts to become a technology leader, China is taking a very proactive approach to international cooperation in research and business, and a large number of collaborations have been built up over many years between Chinese and Western companies and research institutions. China and Denmark also have extensive collaboration in research and business, which will benefit both Denmark and China if the right measures are taken. However, it is the PET assessment that the Chinese state is willing to go to great lengths to pursue its strategic interests in the scientific and technological fields, and that there is a risk of illegal or undesirable Chinese transfer of knowledge and technology, especially in the areas that China strategically prioritizes,« writes the PET.

According to the intelligence service, the areas include quantum research, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and medical technology, maritime technology, space technology and green technology.

»According to PET’s assessment, illegal or unwanted Chinese knowledge transfer can take place in connection with various forms of Chinese research collaboration with Danish research institutions. This includes PhD and talent programmes as well as Chinese government research fellowships and in connection with business collaborations. The Chinese intelligence services may be involved in such activities,« PET writes.

READ ALSO: PhD student with controversial Chinese contract: »I feel completely free«

No military co-operation

Morten Laugesen has been director of the Danish part of SDC since 2017. According to him, the Western perception of China has had an impact on the cooperation.

»There has a heightened focus on who you co-operate with, and on what, and why. And there are some other approval mechanisms that precede certain projects,« explains Morten Laugesen.

He emphasizes however that SDC has never had research projects within the scope of the military, or in technology that, according to Morten Laugesen, can be used militarily in other ways.

The collaboration relates to a higher degree to research within the green transition. He explains that SDC cooperates with the relevant Danish authorities to avoid violating the rules for research collaboration with specific countries.

It is a research dilemma at the moment that there is a very short gap between basic and applied research

Morten Laugesen, Director, SDC

»Of course, we follow the guidelines from the URIS committee, and we know that there are research areas that we should not enter into, because China has a different political agenda. We do not conduct research therefore into things that are politically or ideologically charged, and our work is primarily within the natural sciences,« says Morten Laugesen.

In research, you rarely know the answer beforehand. And often you do not know how certain technologies can be used in the future. So are you not running the risk that you are doing research on something that could later be used or abused by China?

»There are very clear guidelines that Denmark should not work with particular countries on things that have a dual-use in the sense that they can be applied militarily. But we must be aware of this. The algorithm that lets a Tesla see if there’s an object on the road that causes the car to slow down is much the same technology that you can put in a camera in a Chinese city for facial monitoring. We should not go along with the latter. But we can certainly agree that the former has a positive effect. It is currently a research dilemma that the pathway between basic and applied research is short. And the path can be short between something that can be used in a civilian context and something that can be used in a way that was not intended,« says Morten Laugesen.

When this gap between something that is good, and something that is bad is so small, do you ever have any misgivings about this Danish-Chinese research collaboration, and whether you risk that something could be abused?

»No matter what, cooperation is important. The knowledge that arises and that is created around the world belongs to everyone. I think it’s utopian to think that if you don’t cooperate with the Chinese on something, they will not gain access to that knowledge, as the vast majority of research results are published. You have to use your common sense, and then perhaps withdraw from projects where there is a particularly high risk that something can be used in an inappropriate manner. The fact that the Chinese state uses technology and knowledge differently than we do, should not, I think, be an argument for not cooperating in other areas. But we think carefully about what we, so to speak, bring to China, because they have a different political and ideological agenda,« says Morten Laugesen.

Independent research under pressure

Erik Mobrand is a Swedish-American political scientist at Seoul National University, where he has done research on the international cooperation between China and Western countries.

He explains that the trend in the West’s perception of China has changed so significantly in recent years that universities and research ministries around the world have been thrown off balance.

»There is so much uncertainty, and this also means that the different countries each have their own way of approaching this,« says Erik Mobrand, who is also working with Lund University in Sweden on the subject.

In research on climate change and green energy, you need co-operation with China if you want joint solutions

Erik Mobrand, political scientist at Seoul National University

He acknowledges the revelations and the risks of research collaboration with China. But he nevertheless stresses that you need to be careful about stopping all cooperation.

This is mainly because stopping all co-operation runs counter to the ideals of free research that transcend national borders and that are of benefit to the whole world.

»We have researchers who feel that governments, defence authorities and security services are interfering with these sacred principles of academic freedom and international research collaboration. And I also see resistance to it in many parts of the world where people are now opting for a different path. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens in Denmark also,« says Erik Mobrand.

He therefore also encourages universities to themselves become more aware of their own research collaborations instead of placing this awareness in the hands of defence authorities and security services.

Given the risks that exist, can you argue that it would be better to be on the safe side and therefore stop all research collaboration with China?

»You can do this, but apart from going against the principles of free research, it will also have consequences for innovation, the creation of new knowledge, and for collective problem solving. Over the past two decades, the contribution from Chinese researchers has increased sharply, both quantitatively and qualitatively. In research on climate change and green energy in particular, you need co-operation with China if you want joint solutions. So reductions in research collaboration also have real costs,« says Erik Mobrand.

Director of SDC Morten Laugesen is also optimistic about the future of SDC and the research collaboration with China.

»The Chinese are nowadays world leading in many of the research areas we work with. And researchers want to work with the most talented people, and many of them are based in China. That said, it is certainly more difficult to navigate now than it was just five or ten years ago, because the perception of China has changed. Where we previously only saw opportunities in China, the focus now is more on risk. But I also think there will be a period where the pendulum swings back in favour of cooperation, and closer to normality at some point. We will then, to a greater extent, be able to combine the opportunities with the reflection,« says Morten Laugesen.

The University Post has spoken to Bo Wegge Laursen, who is head of the University of Copenhagen’s Nano-Science Center, which organises the study trip in November. He says that the centre always considers what precautions are necessary. But he does not think that the study trip to China is critical.

»In general, I would say that cooperation across national borders is essential in the research community, and research will suffer from a lack of cooperation. What we get out of the research collaboration with China is important. Of course there are things we need to be aware of, and areas where we don’t have to share everything. But as long as we keep this in mind, I see no reason to suspend the collaboration,« says Bo Wegge Laursen.

28 Danish students have so far applied to join the study trip in November.