When it comes to technology that can be used in a military context, the so-called 'golden era' of relations between the UK and China (c.2014-2019) saw a wave of initiatives involving collaboration between British universities and entities in the Chinese military-industrial complex (MIC).
We have conducted research on this area, for example, a study of some important connections between Cambridge University and the Chinese MIC; and a study on a programme to connect data scientists at Imperial College London to the part of the Chinese MIC focused on the design of military ‘unmanned surface vehicles’ (intelligent gunboats).
In the latter case, we found an overlap between the individuals involved in putting together the programme and networks associated with the “”United Front“” in the UK. The era of unregulated (or weakly regulated) institutional interactions of this kind is (for) now over, though instances of collaboration below the institutional level, IE between individual scientists, do continue.
Military-related research is, however, only a small portion of the overall collaboration in higher education between scientists in the UK and those in China.
We have an ongoing programme whereby we are collecting and analysing data on visiting researchers, Chinese-domiciled and -born scientists and students in the UK, their experiences, and their contributions to the public benefit in the UK and wider benefit to humanity.
More Chinese nationals than ever work or study at elite British universities. This phenomenon is an expression of the massive increase in the number of well-educated young scientists emerging from China. By some estimates, there are more such people from China than from the rest of the world combined. This is very important, and merits much more attention in the UK than it has so far received, especially as these individuals progress in their careers and up the hierarchy within UK higher education.
Equally worthy of attention are the efforts made by the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party to propagandise, incentivise, network amongst and otherwise interact with scientists from both countries.
As of 2026, we are the main source of free, publicly available granular data on the number of Chinese science students at PhD, Masters and undergraduate level at British institutions. Our data shows that at the top five universities for engineering, there were in 2024 twice as many Chinese nationals as British nationals studying engineering at postgradudate levels.
Across engineering, physics, chemistry, maths and computer science as a whole, 2024 saw Chinese nationals overtake British nationals at these levels in top-five institutions for the first time.
We closely study the UK government’s intensified regulation of STEM interactions between British universities and China, as manifested through the Academic Technology Approval Scheme, Research Collaboration Advice Team, Export Control Joint Unit, the National Security and Investment Act and related Investment security unit in the Cabinet Office, and other government functions and teams.
