Despite efforts to prevent EU technology leaking to China’s military, the European Commission is continuing to fund at least five research projects involving some of China’s top military-linked universities.
The projects, research by Science|Business finds, involve heat transfer, data security and other technologies that could have dual civilian and military use. China’s participation includes four of its so-called Seven Sons of National Defence, top-ranked universities controlled by the industry ministry and producing most technical graduates that work for its state defence industry. Under standard EU rules, the Chinese get their own funding for their work in the projects, but as official “participants” they can share in the European research, meetings and staff exchanges.
The projects in question are five on-going Marie Skłowdowska Curie Actions (MSCA), that facilitate staff exchanges and network-building among research institutions. Four of the five were started under the EU’s old Horizon 2020 programme, but a fifth began only this March under the Horizon Europe programme. They include €437,000 to improve heat dissipation in electronic devices, €639,400 for low-carbon cooling systems, and €1.1 million for electric motors. Two projects involve using drones to network driverless cars: €340,400 for the security of the networks, and €1.1 million to avoid accidents.
Significant Risk
Science|Business shared the list of projects with several China experts. With these projects, “the risk of research results being redirected to defence applications in China is significant,” said Rebecca Arcesati, a specialist on Chinese technology at Berlin-based think tank Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics). Given that EU research policy towards China is supposed to be more wary than in the past, she called it “remarkable” that one of the projects began in March.
Indeed, in March Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that, while scientific and technology cooperation with China should continue, it must be handled in a way that doesn’t benefit its military. “We need to ensure that our companies’ capital, their expertise, their knowledge, are not used to enhance the military and intelligence capabilities of those who also are our systemic rival,” von der Leyen said.
Science|Business found the projects in public EU databases, but Commission officials in multiple departments over the past few months declined repeated requests for public comment. When pressed for more information, an official spokesperson emailed Science|Business only a summary of already-public information about China policy and normal MSCA procedures. All the projects, though ongoing, were authorised under grant policies that preceded Brussels’ latest policy pronouncements on China – so it’s possible they would not have been authorised today, as China-wariness mounts.
Some of the European project partners, when contacted by Science|Business, indicated that neither they nor Commission officials had seen any problem with the projects. They said they complied with export controls and Commission grant terms in effect at the time they were authorised. Further, they said, Chinese expertise in their fields is valued, and the research is at too early a stage to have immediate practical uses.
“The TRL (technology readiness level) is not that high, for military applications,” explained one project leader, Ali Koşar at Turkey’s top-rated university, Sebanci in Istanbul. Further, he said, the Commission’s grant evaluators never raised the China issue.
But looking more deeply into the projects, China specialists consulted by Science|Business said, can raise some red flags – at least, in light of recent EU policy towards China.
Source: Science Business
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