Australian uni’s Chinese cyber deal sparks national security review
Security experts have raised alarm bells over Macquarie University's 13-year partnership with a Chinese military-linked tech school teaching cyber skills.
EXCLUSIVE: An urgent review has been launched into an Australian university’s partnership with China to train its next generation of cyber warriors.
Macquarie University has struck a 13-year deal approved by Beijing to build a joint campus inside China’s military-linked tech system – a school feeding recruits to the People’s Liberation Army.
“All this sounds like alarm bells,” said a former top Australian intelligence executive.
“I’d be amazed if ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) doesn’t speak to Macquarie about this”.
When alerted to the partnership by this masthead, Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday ordered an “expedited” review.
Over two years, vice-chancellor Bruce Dowton and deputy vice-chancellor Rorden Wilkinson have flown to China, forming the Nanjing Normal University (NNU) – Macquarie University Joint Institute.
Seventy per cent of its computer science curriculum comes from Sydney. One-third of the faculty is Australian. Every class is taught in China. Every degree carries Macquarie’s name.
Its partner, NNU’s School of Computer and Electronic Information and School of Artificial Intelligence, trains Party officials and cyber students – also feeding recruits to US-black-listed defence giants Hikvision and CETC’s 55th Research Institute.
The PLA ran a special “talent recruitment presentation” at its latest job fair, where the school said “... students submitted their resumés on site, (and) immediately began interviews...”
“It’s not a stretch to believe [Macquarie’s] students will one day work for the PLA,” the former senior intelligence official said.
The partner school’s vice-dean holds the PLA’s All-Army Science and Technology Progress Award (Third Prize) – among the military’s top scientific honours.
The PLA once picked another of its senior academics to lead software development for its research systems.
At the institute’s launch in June, provincial education inspector Zhang Lili hailed it as “a practical move to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speeches”.
There is no suggestion that the university or anyone on its behalf has engaged in any unlawful conduct.
The institute will “cultivate high-quality talents with devotion to the nation” and instil “global governance literacy grounded in China’s realities”, a Chinese advertisement says.
Graduates will earn Macquarie degrees “identical to those of regular majors at the home universities,” with “no special markings”.
The former intelligence executive said the credentials could let Party-trained technologists slip into Western security agencies or firms.
“It would take nothing for Macquarie graduates to end up applying for national security graduate programs. They’ll become malicious insider risks.”
Undergraduates must pass an “ideological and political character” test. Postgraduates must “support the leadership of the Communist Party”.
In February, its vice-dean and its Party secretary co-launched an “AI-powered Party-building” alliance with other universities to “jointly study ideological theory” and “work together in talent cultivation”.
A month later, it co-hosted a grant application workshop with a professor from the PLA-founded National University of Defence Technology.
When the institute’s first cohort arrived in Nanjing this September, Vice-Chancellor Dowton was there to welcome them.
He hailed the new institute as a triumph of “trust” and “respect”.
A spokesperson for Minister Wong said “under the powers (Foreign Arrangements Scheme), the Minister for Foreign Affairs can terminate an agreement if it is inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy”.
“Minister Wong has requested expedited review of this arrangement and has sought an explanation from Macquarie University,” the spokesperson said.
A Macquarie spokesman said the institute was “comprehensively reviewed and approved in accordance with Australian regulatory requirements” and assessed through “foreign interference and risk management processes”.
DFAT, the university said, “was also notified”.
“The partnership “strengthens educational and research links between Australia and China, consistent with government objectives,” and will “prepare globally oriented graduates equipped to thrive in an interconnected economy,” a spokesman said.
More Coverage
Originally published as Australian uni’s Chinese cyber deal sparks national security review
The great HECS debt slashing begins – how much will you save?
