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…
Tag: Academics
Oxford University Press to stop publishing China-sponsored science journal
Oxford University Press (OUP) will no longer publish a controversial academic journal sponsored by China’s Ministry of Justice after years of concerns that several papers in the publication did not meet ethical standards about DNA collection. A statement published on the website of Forensic Sciences Research (FSR) states that OUP will stop publishing the quarterly journal after this year. FSR is a journal that comes from China’s Academy of Forensic Science, an agency that sits under the Ministry of Justice. The academy describes FSR as “the only English quarterly journal…
Robert Benewick obituary
My friend Robert Benewick, who has died aged 90, was a political scientist who made major contributions to our knowledge of British and Chinese politics. He was also a soft-spoken fighter for social justice and international understanding. He first visited China in 1975 and over the next 40 years held four visiting professorships at Remnin University of China. In collaboration with British, American and Chinese colleagues he produced seven books and scores of articles on China. As a critical friend of the country he had a leading role in the…