UK academics have contributed to CGTRI-funded projects on topics including AI, cyber-security, covert communications systems and steganography, which means hiding a secret message or file inside an ordinary message or object.
“This activity supports Ministry of State Security espionage, which poses a threat to UK national security,” MI5 said.
The security alert said that many academic institutions and individuals will have engaged with the CGTRI “in good faith” because the link back to Chinese state security had been “obfuscated”.
It continued: “UK academic institutions are strongly advised to immediately review any ongoing or planned collaboration with CGTRI. This is to ensure MSS derives no further benefit from UK universities or research institutions.”
The public alert raises the prospect that British academics who do not act on it immediately could ultimately fall foul of the law.
It stressed that the National Security Act, a key piece of legislation passed in 2023 to counter state espionage, created a new offence of assisting a foreign intelligence service where the individual ought to reasonably have known what they were doing so.
Jarvis said: “This alert exposes attempts by Chinese intelligence to covertly benefit from the expertise and research of our academics, undermining our national security, and that of our allies.”
Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan-Smith, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told the BBC that several reports had suggested “British universities’ dependence on Chinese students has opened them up to all sorts of problems” and that security checks should be stepped up.
Responding to the alert, Universities UK said universities “take their responsibilities around research security and national security extremely seriously”.
“The sector has made significant investments in recent years to strengthen due diligence, risk assessment and research security processes,” said chief executive Vivienne Stern, “while continuing to support the international collaboration that is essential to world-leading research and innovation”.
“Close engagement between Government and the higher education sector is vital to ensuring that universities and the country continue to benefit from international collaboration while effectively managing national security risks.”
