The University of Cambridge received between £12 million and £19m from Chinese entities between 2020 and 2024, according to a report by The Independent.

Freedom of Information requests found that Cambridge accepted up to £19 million in gifts, donations, research funding, and grants from Chinese sources in the past four years. This included thousands from organisations linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The University provided ranges for several of its funding amounts so the exact value of Chinese investment is unknown.

This funding is part of almost £50 million donated to the 24 Russell Group universities by Chinese sources during this period, with Cambridge and Oxford the largest beneficiaries.

Among the disclosed contributions was £204,000 in research grants from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in February 2024. According to the report, the academy is home to the Missile Institute of the Military-Civilian Integration Development Centre.

Another £174,997 came from Tianjin University, which is flagged as “high-risk” by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute for its involvement in defence research and espionage connections. The University reportedly conducts classified military research on advanced technologies like propellants and optoelectronics in defence laboratories and undertakes research for China’s civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

A Cambridge spokesperson told The Independent: “Less than one percent of our annual research grant is derived from China. All grants and donations from China are subject to robust scrutiny, backed by a specially formulated set of principles for managing risks in international engagements.”

“The funding from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics was for research into understanding earthquakes, the data from which has potential societal value and we intend to make open source,” they continued.

This comes days after Varsity reported that alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo received an award at a ceremony hosted at Churchill College in 2019.

In September, the Chinese Ambassador to the UK told Cambridge students to “serve the motherland” during a visit to the University. Earlier that year, the Uyghur Rights Campaign accused the Jesus College China Forum of dismissing Uyghur human rights concerns, due to its invitation of speakers with alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

A 2023 report by UK-China Transparency revealed that Cambridge’s Department of Engineering received over £2 million in funding from the Beijing Institute of Aerospace Control Devices (BIACD), a Chinese state-owned company known for being one of China’s leading manufacturers of military drones.

That same year, The Times reported that the University received more than £26 million in funding from Huawei, a Chinese company considered by the UK government to be a risk to national security, for research into sensitive areas such as artificial intelligence and mobile network technology.

According to the Daily Mail, the Engineering Faculty also accepted a ‘generous gift’ from Tencent, a Chinese software company with alleged links to the CCP, in 2021.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Conservative MP and co-chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said British universities have become “completely dependent on Chinese money,” leading to academics and institutions “kowtowing towards China and its views”.

“China seeks sensitive information from the UK because of our intelligence links with the United States, and Beijing sees the university system as a vulnerable strand of British intelligence,” he continued.

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