Co-China research guidelines required for universities

Chancellor says clarity is needed about where universities can, and cannot, work with China.

University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese says there needs to be clarity about where universities can, and cannot, work with China on research. Picture: Mike Curtain

University of Queensland chancellor and former top diplomat Peter Varghese has called on the federal government to work with universities to draw “red lines” around areas of research which should not be shared with Chinese counterparts.

Amid growing concern about Australia’s rapidly growing research ties with China Mr Varghese, who led the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2012 to 2016, also said that research linkages with Chinese universities were too valuable to cut.

“It’s important to recognise the benefits to Australia from research collaboration with China,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Australian.

“The gaining of knowledge is a collaborative effort and if Australia wants to continue to be a strong performer in innovation, you don’t want to cut off your capacity to work with Chinese scholars in areas which don’t go to national security.”

According to the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, this year will overtake the US as the most important partner for Australian university researchers on one measure, the number of joint papers published.

In a recent paper ACRI said that collaboration with China in key technology fields — including engineering, computer science, energy and materials science — was already vital to Australia’s knowledge creation

But Mr Varghese said there needed to be clarity about where universities can, and cannot, work with China on research.

“We need to have a conversation with government on where the red lines are. We need a deeper dialogue about what’s in and what’s out,” he said.

“The problem is that policy could move quickly in this area without having a serious look at the pluses and minuses of research collaboration.”

University leaders say that many research areas in which they collaborate with China — for example materials science, communication and even health — are not primarily for military or security use but could conceivably have that purpose.

Mr Varghese agreed there was a difficult “grey zone” of dual-use technologies. He said that universities and government needed to have a clear and shared understanding of what technologies fell into this zone.

“We also need to recognise there will be areas in which Australian governments will not want universities to work with China. What those areas are, and how to police them, are part of the conversation we need to have,” he said.

As tension in Hong Kong spills over into Australian university campuses, with pro-Hong Kong and pro-Chinese government groups of students clashing in rival protests, federal Education Minister Dan Tehan yesterday said the government was taking foreign interference in the university sector “incredibly seriously”.

He slapped down concerns from Liberal MPs that the university sector is not doing enough to combat subversion from the Communist Party of China.

Mr Tehan rejected a claim by Liberal National senator Amanda Stoker there was a “crisis of leadership” on the issue.

“These are issues that have emerged over the last few years. They are ones which require careful consideration. But I must say the engagement I have had with the sector, they understand how important this is that we get it right,” Mr Tehan told Sky News.

“We have processes in place to make sure that we are working closely with the sector to put the right guidelines in place to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure freedom of speech, freedom of academic inquiry, the right for peaceful protest in our higher education sector.”

Mr Tehan said he would meet vice-chancellors next month to finalise guidelines on dealing with foreign influence on campuses.