Protecting National Assets From Rapacious Beijing
"I am deeply concerned about the potential theft of Canadian intellectual property and further concerned that research partnerships with the People's Republic of China may be used by Chinese military and intelligence agencies.""More needs to be done to curb foreign state infiltration into our research and innovation centres, including our post-secondary institutions.""My priority is to work with our post-secondary institutions to protect Canadian intellectual property and to ensure that Alberta institutions do not enter into agreements with entities that would undermine our country's core national interests."Alberta Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides"A consistent national response on security matters and international engagement is necessary and we are fully committed to working with all levels of government to ensure that Canada's core security interests are protected and advanced.""To be a leading research-intensive university means being an active participant in the globalized community."Walter Dixon, interim president of research and innovation, University of Alberta
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Agreements are in place by the University of Alberta with partners from over 80 different countries. International partnerships, inclusive of research, teaching agreements and international learning opportunities represent the universally acknowledged academic community freedom to provide students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty with the stimulation and experiences required to ensure that knowledge flows freely around the world, to be shared by all. A noble tradition.
One that has its newly-revealed flaws, when one partner above all others seeks to purloin, not share in research for their own very specific advantage. In the process probing deeply into political and military areas that have nothing to link them to shared scientific endeavours unless they fall into the category of protected state secrets. And those limited areas have been, from time to time, the subject of unlawful cyber security breaches on the part of state actors.
It all seems to come down to the rogue acts of the People's Republic of China's agenda to acquire as much of other nations' critical data, protected secret files and scientific and technological research breakthroughs as it can manage to capture by any means necessary to fulfill the Chinese Communist Party's increasingly understood agenda of becoming the most influential and powerful nation on the globe whose infrastructure and political tentacles reach everywhere.
Alberta has now taken steps to inform four of its universities to put a halt to searching out research projects with any link to the Chinese government. Because everything in China is linked to the Chinese government. The province's Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides asks the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge and Athabasca University to pause pursuing any new or renewed partnerships linked to the Chinese government or ruling Chinese Communist Party.
A thorough review is to be undertaken of their institutions' relationships with any entities with potential links to Beijing, ensuring that ongoing partnerships recognize stringent risk assessments and enhanced diligence. The statement from the minister cites ongoing concerns with respect to national security and intelligence, most notably the federal government's domain. This provincial initiative echoes what has been occurring in other democratic countries such as Australia and the United States.
Concerns relating to foreign involvement in university research and intellectual property protection are the subjects of great debate, particularly of late. Ottawa had initiated the concern when it signalled its focus on "espionage and foreign interference activities" when the federal government encouraged researchers to become cautious in protection of the security of their research and intellectual property.
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| Canadian Security Intelligence Service building is shown in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick) |
Labels: Canada, Canadian Interests, Chinese Academic Exchanges, Diligence, Intelligence, Research, Security, Universities
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, May 26, 2021
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