Charles Wooley: Academics should tread with care when it comes to Chinese influence

It’s been revealed three UTAS scientists have come to the attention of our intelligence services and now would be a good time for the uni to explain their involvement, writes Charles Wooley.

What a shock it was, earlier this week, to learn that at least 32 Australian scientists, three of them at UTAS, have drawn the attention of our intelligence agencies.

It’s claimed they have been recruited in a legal scheme for Australian scientists in which the Chinese Government gains the fruits of their labours.

The deputy chairman of the powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Anthony Byrne said: “It would appear that Australian universities have turned a blind eye to [their] own academics selling their knowledge to a foreign power through a program that the FBI have identified as a national security and economic espionage threat. This is totally unacceptable.”

But wait a minute. In these constrained times who wouldn’t work for a little earner on the side? Teachers might tutor out of hours. Journalists have been known to lend a discreet hired hand here and there.

Doctors take on advisory work and sit on boards (but should beware of Big Pharma). Even an apprentice plumber might labour on a Saturday for an extra quid without getting in the poo.

Everyone is doing it and apparently there is nothing un-Australian about that. Unless, apparently it is the Chinese government who is paying. Then woe-betide any possibly naive academic boffin who has been persuaded for scientific research purposes to engage with the Chinese Communist Party’s international science exercise. It is a scheme wonderfully called “The Thousand Talents Plan”.

Such titles might sound fine in Chinese. But when translated into English, even to the only mildly paranoid they resonate with sinister and Orwellian undertones.

Australia’s spy agency ASIO is not necessarily paranoid, just professionally distrustful (not without reason) of China’s covert and manipulating activities across the whole of Australian society.

The Thousand Talents Plan is a Chinese government initiative to recruit top scientists from around the world with offers of ‘second salaries’ upwards of $150,000, plus research funding. Some scientists are even offered frequent travel to laboratories in China and their own research team.

While to the pure at heart this might look like commendable international scientific collaboration, the spy agencies are apprehensive that any Australian breakthroughs and discoveries will be patented in China – effectively taken from Australia along with the economic benefits.

The relationship with China has been handled badly by most Australian universities. These institutions’ yen for the yuan has made them a sad and sorry mess, economically, academically and ethically.

Our security agencies allege that Australia-wide contracts with the Thousand Talents Plan contracts contain confidentiality clauses. Some universities might not even know the extent of the problem. Others are said to be willing participants.

All of which is generally on par with the grievous mess our tertiary education sector has become.

At my old alma mater right here in River City, the three UTAS science academics, so far named, are each working in what would seem to be the interests of all humanity.

Changhai Ding is a Menzies Institute osteoarthritis researcher.

Half the world’s population over 50 years of age could benefit from his work.

Professor Sergey Shabala is a plant physiologist studying ancient plants to try to restore their robustness to more fragile modern crops. In short, trying to ensure we can feed a 9.3 billion population by 2050.

This week it was claimed that 32 Australians had been recruited in a legal scheme for Australian scientists in which the Chinese Government gains the fruits of their labours.

Professor Andrew McMinn works in the crucial field of environmental change, particularly in polar areas. Like his colleagues, he now finds himself on thin ice, even though all those areas of inquiry make laudable science and are in the interest of all humanity.

So, if you are still trying to get your head around the Thousand Talents Plan think of it as a variation on Chairman Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative. What the BRT is to Australian agriculture and mining, the TTP is to our universities.

There are questions to be answered. Not the least, what are the terms of our TTP scientists’ employment? Is any of it a secret deal?

Because researchers are already on our public payroll it is fair to ask how much are they being paid by a foreign government.

And in the end, who benefits? The world, Australia or only China?

A question is also raised about the naivety or venality (or both) of Australian universities.

How much can they trust and embrace the involvement of a cynical, self-interested and often brutal regimen like the Communist Party of China?

Will it ever work in any interest other than its own?

Scomo to the rescue. All questions are soon to be answered.

The Prime Minister has announced forthcoming legislation to give Canberra oversight and approval or rejection of all foreign deals.

This legislation might be surprisingly far reaching.

Already I can hear sighs of relief from the so called ‘anti-everything brigade’ up at Cambria Green, Swansea.

Over in Victoria the intentions of ‘Chairman Dan’ to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative are now looking unlikely.

And in Australian universities the “Thousand Talents Plan” which precipitated the Federal Government’s timely action this week will certainly be shut down.

It was a nice little earner while it lasted.

Here in Tasmania we have little idea of the depth of UTAS’s involvement in Chairman Xi’s “Thousand Talents Plan”. Certainly, it would now make good tactical sense for our university to come clean and release some early voluntary disclosures to the Tasmanian public.

And to do it before the ASIO rottweilers move in.

It is another fine old mess from which many of our Australian universities must now extricate themselves.

Here in Tasmania it is starting to look like UTAS could use the services and honeyed words of an old journo who is also looking for a nice little earner on the side.