A paper critical of New Zealand university links with China by Professor Anne-Marie Brady has drawn complaints from other universities and prompted a review by her own employer.
The University of Canterbury professor, whose research into the Chinese Government’s efforts to influence Western democracies has won her international recognition, presented the paper last month as a supplementary submission to Parliament’s Justice select committee. The paper, co-authored by Jichang Lulu and Sam Pheloung, was also published on the Washington-based Wilson Center? think tank website.
The paper shows how New Zealand universities and high tech companies are linked to Chinese universities and corporates and how they could be assisting technology transfer useful to the Chinese military. Brady says China has an international technology transfer strategy that includes academic exchanges, investment in foreign companies, espionage and hacking.
Canterbury University academics mentioned in the paper and others from universities elsewhere in New Zealand and overseas have in recent days complained about its assertions and Canterbury has commenced a review.
Canterbury’s deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Ian Wright, said the complaining academics believed the publication contained “manifest errors of fact and misleading inferences”.
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