Australian academics are giving the Chinese Communist Party access to their technology and inventions where there is the risk they could be used for military or intelligence purposes under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s military-civil fusion.
Of particular concern to security experts is how technology and inventions, paid for by the Australian taxpayer, are being sent to China and used to advance their military and intelligence.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Alex Joske revealed in a report entitled The China Defence Universities Tracker that China’s nuclear weapons agency is actively recruiting overseas talent via the Thousand Talents plan. A leading organisation for China’s nuclear weapons program, the China Academy of Engineering Physics, has recruited 57 scientists through the plan, according to archived pages of its website dated 2014.
A Shandong University news release revealed there had been a CAEP talent recruitment conference held at the university in 2015. It states the CAEP has “the main task of developing weapons, strategic hi-tech equipment and strategic science and technology”.
“After more than 50 years of development, it has achieved a series of milestones such as atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and neutron bombs,” it states.
Mr Joske’s report states the CAEP is “responsible for research into and development and manufacturing of China’s nuclear weapons” and that “it’s also involved in developing lasers, directed-energy weapons and conventional weapons”.
What is the Thousand Talents Plan?
The “Thousand Talents Plan” is a Chinese Government program to recruit top scientists from around the world.
It was originally designed to reverse China’s brain drain.
Under Xi Jinping’s civil-military fusion, the Thousand Talents Plan helps China achieve technological and innovation advances.
Western academics have been recruited through their colleagues, superiors or even via LinkedIn.
They are offered a lucrative second-salary, upwards of $150,000 a year, with generous research funding.
Some academics are given an entire new laboratory in a Chinese university and team of research staff.
Many are proud of their Thousand Talents link and participate with consent of their universities. Others have not disclosed the link to their universities and do not publicly admit to being part of the program.
Some Thousand Talents contracts stipulate they cannot disclose their participation in the Chinese Government program without permission.
They continue to work full-time for their Australian university while making frequent trips to China to visit the affiliated Thousand Talents Plan university.
They continue to apply for Australian Research Council grants, with no checks about where the research will end up.
Their new inventions are patented in China, often secretly.
The inventions may be commercialised, with China reaping the economic benefits.
Thousand Talents academics may be required to recruit more academics.
Australian universities would have little idea if any of their academics were involved with the CAEP, or other similar overtly military organisations, via the Thousand Talents Plan.
New Zealand academic Anne-Marie Brady published a report last month titled China’s Exploitation of Civilian Channels for Military Purposes in New Zealand, which states that “hundreds of thousands” of Chinese scientists have been sent abroad to acquire the latest military-related technology.
She writes that it amounts to countries like New Zealand and Australia “subsidising China’s military modernisation”.
“It is shameful that the research of some of our researchers may be used to help improve the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Xinjiang and elsewhere,” she writes.
Matthew Henderson — a former British diplomat who served in Hong Kong and China — said China was effectively outsourcing research to Australia, the UK and the US through the Thousand Talents Plan.
“It serves the dual purpose of modernising China’s military and is also commercially valuable,” he said.
“At the moment we are giving greater shelf life to the most appalling regime the world has ever known because the best of our abilities are being stolen from us or handed over on a silver platter.”
What do the academics get?
The “Thousand Talents Plan” has been described by FBI director Christopher Wray as “economic espionage”.
Some Thousand Talents academics keep their links to China secret even from their Australian universities, while others are open about their involvement.
Under “Thousand Talents Plan” contracts, scientists legally sign away the rights to their intellectual property to China.
A standard clause in the contracts states China: “owns the copyrights of the works, inventions, patents and other intellectual properties produced by Party B (the academic) during the Contract period.”
Many contracts order the scientist to observe Chinese legal system, stating the academic: “shall observe relevant laws and regulations of the People’s Republic of China and shall not interfere in China’s internal affairs.”
Australian academics are also warned about religious practices, with contracts often stating: “Party B shall respect China’s religious policies, and shall not conduct any religious activities incompatible with his/her status as a foreign expert.”
They are offered a lucrative second salary, upwards of $150,000 a year, with generous research funding.
Other perks include travel, tuition for their children and housing subsidies.
Some academics are given an entire new laboratory in a Chinese university and team of research staff to work for them.
They then have a “clone” team in China – often unbeknownst to their Australian employer.
The academic often makes numerous trips to China to conduct research.
The aim of the program is to ‘own’ the research conducted and paid for by western universities.
Another Thousand Talents contract states: “We anticipate that you will make several trips to China each year during the term of your engagement, but will perform much of your work remotely.”
China will benefit from the commercialisation: “Should Chinese scientists contribute to your discoveries in China, as we anticipate.. and our institutions will jointly own, protect and manage the commercialisation of these jointly-made discoveries.”
Professor Brady adds: “Until recently, PLA equipment was assessed as low-tech and lagging behind that of other major weapons-producing states. However, in the past 10 years, the PLA’s military modernisation program has accelerated (and) China now leads the world in a number of fields and is close to being on a par with the United States in some domains.”
She poses the question: “How can we stop companies and universities from being used to boost China’s military development?”
“The People’s Liberation Army’s rapid militarisation program is accelerating via an international technology transfer strategy, which includes academic exchanges, investment in foreign companies, espionage and hacking,” she writes.
China’s efforts, through recruitment programs such as Thousand Talents, along with espionage and hacking has already paid off.
Thousand Talents scholars and academics in similar recruitment programs
Scroll down to where each individual is shown and click on the name to get his details
1.Ruibin Zhang 张瑞斌, University of Sydney
2.Xiao-lin (Joshua) Zhao 赵晓林, University of NSW
3.Yi-bing Cheng 程一兵, Monash University (until 2018)
4.Xuemin Lin 林学民, University of NSW
5.Jingling Xue 薛京灵, University of NSW
Professor Xue, a computer scientist who specialises in programming languages, has previously co-authored research with Chinese generals linked to Beijing’s nuclear weapons program. One university to which he is linked, the National University of Defence Technology, is the PLA’s premier institution for scientific research and education and has been blacklisted by the US. UNSW said he ended his relationship with NUDT in 2017. Xue has disclosed two Thousand Talent plan appointments to UNSW under which he received a living allowance. Xue has received more than $2.8m in ARC grants as lead investigator and $534,000 as part of a team.
6.Yanchun Zhang 张彦春, Victoria University
7.Wang Xungai 王训该, Deakin University
8.Minyue Fu 付敏跃, University of Newcastle
9.Jianfeng Nie 聂建峰, Monash University
10.Neil Foster, Curtin University
11.Dongke Zhang 张东柯, University of WA
12.Huijun Zhao 赵惠军, Griffith University
13.Wenju Cai 蔡文炬, CSIRO
14.Dai Liming 戴黎明, University of NSW
15.Zhaoyang (Joe) Dong 董朝阳, University of NSW
16.Qiaoliang Bao 鲍桥梁, Monash University (until 2019)
17.Xiao Dong Chen 陈晓东, Monash University (until 2010)
18.Min Gu 顾敏, RMIT (until 2019)
19.Li Wu 吴励, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (until 2010)
20.Changhai Ding 丁长海, University of Tasmania
21.Qingsong (Adam) Ye 叶青松, University of Queensland (until 2020)
22.Hao Wang 王浩, University of Southern Queensland
23.Xiaofang Zhou 周晓方, University of Queensland
24.Brad Yu/ Changbin Yu 于长斌, Curtin University
25.Ling Li 李凌, University of Queensland (until 2018)
26.Yuchao Dai, Australian National University (until 2017)
27.Andrew McMinn, University of Tasmania
28.Sergey Shabala, University of Tasmania
29.Jun Wang 王军, University of NSW (applied for the Thousand Talents Plan but did not sign a contract)
30.Jianfu Chen 陈建福, La Trobe University (applied for the Thousand Talents Plan but did not sign a contract)
31.Mark Humphrey, Australian National University (applied for the Thousand Talents Plan but did not sign a contract)
32.Guoxiu Wang 汪国秀, University of Technology Sydney (denies being a Thousand Talent recruit)
Sharri Markson is the Investigations Writer at The Australian and host of “Sharri” on Sky News Australia. She is a two-time Walkley Award winner, the recipient of the 2018 Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Excellence…