Our picks: China syndromeTop U.K. Universities Worked with Chinese Nuclear Weapons Labs | China’s Rare Earth & U.S.-China Tech War | Boycotting Beijing Winter Olympics, and more
· Scientists at Top British Universities Worked with Chinese Nuclear Weapons Researchers
· Royal Navy to defy Beijing with patrols in South China Sea
· China’s Military-Civil Fusion Strategy: What to Expect in the Next Five Years
· Meet China’s Best British Friends: The Johnson Clan
· A Solid Plan to Compete with China in Artificial Intelligence
· Boycott Questions over Beijing Winter Olympics Raise Eerie Echoes of 1936
· How China’s Digital Silk Road Is Leading Countries Away from the United States
· A Salami Slice for Taiwan’s Security
· Chinese Enterprises Expand in U.K.
· China Says Domestic Competition Hurting Rare Earth Prices
· China Boosts Rare-Earth Output Amid Growing Tech War with U.S.
· As U.S., U.K. Converge on China, British Lawmaker Says “Golden Era Is Over”
· Analysis: China’s Unsustainable Poverty Eradication Claims Are a House of Cards
Scientists at Top British Universities Worked with Chinese Nuclear Weapons Researchers (Juliet Samuel and Hayley Dixon, The Telegraph)
Scientists at Britain’s leading universities – including Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester – have worked on a string of projects with researchers at China’s nuclear weapons research institution, an investigation by The Telegraph has found.
The Telegraph found that British academics have published dozens of papers alongside scientists employed by a Chinese institution that is on a US sanctions list due to its research into developing Beijing’s nuclear arsenal.
The joint UK-China projects show how taxpayers could be inadvertently funding research at China’s nuclear weapons program through science funding grants and use of Britain’s cutting edge government-funded science facilities, including the UK’s national supercomputer, ARCHER, and a £260 million particle accelerator called Diamond Light Source.
In total, The Telegraph found that scientists at 33 U.K. universities, including 18 in the prestigious Russell Group including Queen Mary University London (QMUL) and Liverpool, have conducted research in cooperation with CAEP or its subsidiaries.
The institutions are supervised by China’s Central Military Council and are on US sanctions lists because they have been tasked with developing Beijing’s nuclear weapons programs and with finding new ways to put science to military use.
Tom Tugendhat, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, described the links as “extraordinary”, adding: “Some universities’ apparent lack of curiosity about their partners leaves them exposed to accusations of collusion with hostile states, violating human rights, and undermining the security of the U.K.
Royal Navy to defy Beijing with patrols in South China Sea (Larisa Brown, The Times)
Britain’s defense strategy will “tilt” toward the Indo-Pacific region where the Royal Navy will have a regular presence in the future, the head of the armed forces has said.
General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defense staff, said China was a growing great power presenting an opportunity and a “strategic challenge” for the UK.
He said the long-awaited integrated review of Britain’s defense and foreign policy would outline how more military engagement in the Asia-Pacific region was a “no-brainer”.
China’s Military-Civil Fusion Strategy: What to Expect in the Next Five Years (Alex Stone and Peter W. Singer, Defense One)
Even as the term has all but disappeared from official documents, its tenets are being strengthened and extended.
