Imperial College London Closes Several Chinese-funded Laboratories

The British Government is saying no to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) infiltration of higher education on the grounds of national security issues. Imperial College London plans to close a number of Chinese-funded laboratories.

The CCP state-owned Shougang Group funded a laboratory at Imperial College London, which studies light steel systems and vehicle collision avoidance systems, which are likely to be used as dual-use technologies. The research members recently published a paper with the Shougang Institute of Technology on new methods for manufacturing high-strength magnesium steel. Shougang Group, which supplies steel to the Chinese military, has a website of Shougang Guiyang Special Steel Co., Ltd., which lists products labeled military steel.

A British newspaper reported that from 2018 to 2021, Shougang provided sponsorship funds to the laboratory for a total of about 1.2 million pounds. A source told the newspaper that the lab would be phased out by the end of next year.

In September, it was reported after the British Government’s Joint Export Control Department rejected the license application, Imperial College London will close two research institutes jointly run by the college with the AVIC Structural Design and Manufacturing Center and the Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials, which began operations in 2012.