WIREDGOV

The government should reduce universities’ operational cost and compensate them balancing national security interests against foreign interference.

Since the autumn of 2025, the UK has seen heightened attention on Chinese espionage cases with potential direct implications for national security. There was the dropped prosecution of a former parliamentary researcher over the provision of information to China. Chinese recruitment activities targeting staff within the legislature and government agencies also came to light. As a result, MI5 has issued formal warnings to the UK Parliament and these risks have become widely recognized.

As highlighted in a statement by the Director-General of MI5 in October 2025, similar vigilance is required in the academic sphere, where Chinese espionage cases and other influence operations must also be carefully monitored.

In November 2025, the UK announced a policy to promote scientific and technological cooperation with China, targeting four areas – climate and environment, planetary science and astronomy, health and agriculture – as fields from which both countries could benefit. Then in early February 2026, MI5 reportedly called over 70 vice-chancellors together to put them on guard against ‘hostile states’ attempts at intimidation and censorship. Taken together, this is representative of the common challenge faced by Western countries: how to balance the risk/reward implications of cooperation with China?

Because the national security of Western countries requires both the capabilities provided by advances in science and technology and the values and norms provided by the humanities and social sciences, governments must manage ‘orderly cooperation’ with China in both fields. Currently, the burdens associated with this challenge fall disproportionately on the universities. As the actors responsible for implementing risk management in this area, universities not only have to deal with ambiguous guidance on how to deal with this challenge; they also end up shouldering the operational and financial costs arising from the management of national security requirements.

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