UK academics face heavy pressure from Beijing

Sheffield Hallam University ordered a professor to cease research into supply chains and forced labour in China.

British academics whose research is critical of China say they have been targeted and their universities subjected to “immense” pressure from Beijing, prompting renewed calls for a reassessment of the sector’s dependence on tuition fees from Chinese students.

Academics spoke out this week after the Guardian revealed that Sheffield Hallam University had acceded to Beijing’s demands to halt research into human rights abuses in China, leading to the cancellation of a major project.

One Chinese scholar based in the UK has since described receiving death threats and being subjected to a smear campaign, while another has been banned from travelling to China for her work on human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and can no longer conduct her research there.

Others described “soft” or “indirect” pressure, leading to academics self-censoring and risk-averse universities avoiding research that could put them in conflict with China, which controls the flow of students to financially vulnerable British universities.

In February, Sheffield Hallam, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a research institute focused on human rights, ordered one of its leading professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research into supply chains and forced labour in China.

Emails seen by the Guardian indicate that commercial factors were taken into account in banning Murphy’s work. In October, following threats of legal action, the university lifted the ban and apologised, but the eight-month suspension has raised new concerns about the negative impact of pressure from Chinese authorities on British universities. Murphy told the Guardian: “I think a lot of people experience some form of this, usually more subtle, usually not so overt and explicit. But it’s very risky to speak out against your university. They worry that they might face repercussions.”

Andreas Fulda, a political scientist and China scholar at the University of Nottingham, is among those who have been targeted because of his critical scholarship and media commentary. At one point, “fake” emails were sent to his colleagues in his name announcing his resignation and inviting them to a farewell party.

He doesn’t know who sent the emails. He and his family have also received death threats. He said: “What I’ve learned is that once you reach a certain perception threshold in the eyes of the Chinese security agencies, you get punished for expressing your views to deter you from doing so.”

Laura Murphy
Counter-terrorism police investigating claim UK university halted research after Chinese pressure

Fulda said he hoped the Sheffield Hallam case would prove a turning point, highlighting the risks of the UK’s current higher education funding model, in which universities are heavily reliant on the high tuition fees paid by international students, the largest group of whom are from China.

Government promises to increase domestic tuition fees in line with inflation have been welcomed by the sector, although plans to impose a 6% international student levy to reinstate maintenance grants threaten to wipe out much of that benefit.

Fulda said: “What is clearly visible is that the Chinese side, the state, has considerable leverage and British universities have considerable vulnerabilities. I fear that if universities don’t disengage from their close ties with China, we will face many more incidents like Sheffield Hallam in the future.” Dr. Jo Smith Finley, a reader in Chinese Studies at Newcastle University, was sanctioned by China in 2021 for her work on human rights abuses against the Uyghurs. She said: “Since then, Newcastle University has treated me very badly, as I have become a liability in an environment where all universities are dependent on Chinese students’ tuition fees.

“The pressure exerted by Chinese authorities on university representatives working in the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and on university managers in the UK regarding recruitment is immense.”

Other academics in the field were hesitant to comment publicly. Against a backdrop of widespread redundancies in the sector, one academic said: “I’m afraid I would lose my job if I spoke about my experiences working on China in British universities.”

Universities UK, which represents the sector, said: “UK universities are committed to upholding freedom of expression and academic freedom.”