More than 100 UK-based academics worked on projects paid for by an organisation MI5 says serves China’s intelligence service. No Kent university has been named, but every one of them has been told to check.
Universities in Kent are among those being told to review their research for any links to a Chinese organisation that MI5 says funds work for China’s intelligence service, after the Security Service issued a rare public espionage alert on Wednesday 30 September.
The alert names the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which is sometimes translated as the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT). MI5 says it has “very strong ties” to the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China’s civilian intelligence and security service. Security Minister Dan Jarvis has written to the vice-chancellors of every UK university asking them to make sure staff end any arrangements with it.
What MI5 has said
According to the alert, the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that “directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage”.
MI5 says more than 100 UK-linked academics have contributed to projects funded by the MSS through CGTRI, on subjects including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, covert communications systems and steganography, the practice of hiding information inside other files or messages. The Security Service says this activity supports Chinese espionage and poses a threat to UK national security.
The alert does not accuse the academics of knowingly helping Chinese intelligence. It says that in some cases they may not have known CGTRI was paying for the project they were working on, and that many institutions and individuals will have dealt with the organisation in good faith because its links to the MSS were hidden.
MI5 has not named any university or academic.
What universities are being told to do
MI5 says UK universities and research institutions should immediately review any current or planned collaboration with CGTRI, so that the MSS gets no further benefit from British research. Academics are advised to establish where the money ultimately comes from before taking part in any research with a Chinese institution.
Institutions are pointed to the government’s Research Collaboration Advice Team and to the Trusted Research guidance published by the National Protective Security Authority, and are advised to consider taking their own legal advice.
The alert also carries a legal warning. Now that MI5 has put CGTRI’s links to the MSS in the public domain, it says universities, staff and researchers should be aware of the National Security Act 2023, in particular the offences of assisting a foreign intelligence service (section 3) and obtaining a material benefit from one (section 17). Anyone who continues research ultimately funded by CGTRI after the alert is advised to take independent legal advice.
In his letter to vice-chancellors, Mr Jarvis said the alert “exposes attempts by Chinese intelligence to covertly benefit from the expertise and research of our academics”, according to Times Higher Education.
The Chinese embassy in London rejected the allegations as “imaginary and purely fabricated” and said it had lodged “solemn representations” with the UK.
Has any Kent university been named?
No. MI5’s alert names no institutions, and nothing published so far links any Kent university to CGTRI.
UK-China Transparency, an independent research organisation, has published its own initial list of 15 universities it believes should check their past and current links to CGTRI most urgently. They include University College London, the University of Surrey, the University of Cambridge and the University of Warwick. No Kent institution is on the list, although the group says its scoping is unlikely to be complete.
Because Mr Jarvis wrote to every vice-chancellor, the request reaches all of Kent’s universities: the University of Kent and the University of Greenwich, which merged on 3 August to form the LASE University Group with campuses in Canterbury and Medway; Canterbury Christ Church University; and the University for the Creative Arts.
The University of Kent does significant research in two of the fields MI5 lists. It is recognised by the National Cyber Security Centre and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research for 2024 to 2029, through its Institute of Cyber Security for Society. That does not mean any link to CGTRI exists. It is, however, the kind of work the alert asks universities to check.
KLN’s questions to Kent universities
Kent Local News is putting written questions to the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University. We are asking whether each has started the review MI5 asks for, whether it has found any past or current research, funding or collaboration involving CGTRI, and how it checks where the money behind research partnerships with Chinese institutions ultimately comes from.
We will report their answers in a follow-up article.
Not the first warning
This is the second public espionage alert from MI5 in under a year. In November 2025 it warned MPs, peers and parliamentary staff that Chinese intelligence officers were using online profiles posing as recruitment headhunters, on sites such as LinkedIn, to approach people with access to sensitive information.
The Security Service has also briefed universities directly before. In April 2024, MI5 and the National Cyber Security Centre told the leaders of 24 universities that foreign states, including China, were targeting UK universities to boost their own economic and military capabilities.