A high-level probe into Chinese ‘spies’ working in British universities could lead to arrests within weeks, The Mail on Sunday has been told. Specialists at the Foreign Office, Special Branch and HMRC have drawn up a list of academics suspected of passing sensitive information to Beijing, including pioneering British technology that could be used to aid the repression of minorities and dissidents.
Investigators are understood to have ‘established a correlation’ between universities which earn significant income from students from China and the activities of staff which have prompted suspicion. Universities under scrutiny include Manchester and Imperial College, which earn 26 per cent of their income from students from China; Liverpool and Sheffield (28 per cent); and Oxford and Cambridge (10 per cent).
