Britain’s MI5 has issued an unprecedented public warning accusing a Chinese research organisation of funding academic projects in the UK to strengthen China’s espionage capabilities, including research into artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and covert communications.
In its “Espionage Alert” on Wednesday, MI5 said more than 100 UK-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which the agency said had “very strong ties” to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing’s civilian intelligence service.
“MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage,” the agency said. It identified projects involving artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, covert communications systems and steganography, a technique for concealing information within messages or objects.
MI5 said the alert was the first time it had independently published such a warning publicly. The agency said many academics and institutions had dealt with CGTRI, which is sometimes translated as the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT), in good faith and without knowing about its alleged close relationship with the MSS.
The agency nevertheless warned that academics who continued working with the organisation could face prosecution under Britain’s National Security Act, enacted in 2023 to strengthen powers against foreign espionage and hostile state activity.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said he had written to the heads of universities across Britain to ensure that staff ended relationships with the Chinese organisation.
“This alert exposes attempts by Chinese intelligence to covertly benefit from the expertise and research of our academics, undermining our national security, and that of our allies,” Jarvis said. He added that international partnerships remained important to British universities and research institutes, but said the government would take “robust action” against security threats.
China rejected the allegations. Its embassy in Britain described them as “imaginary and purely fabricated” and said it had lodged what it called solemn representations with the British government.
“We firmly oppose such baseless allegations and have lodged solemn representations with the U.K. side,” an embassy spokesperson said. The spokesperson urged British intelligence authorities to “stop spreading falsehoods and stop undermining educational exchanges and research cooperation between China and the U.K.”
The warning comes as Britain seeks closer economic relations with Beijing while continuing to raise concerns about Chinese espionage and alleged attempts to undermine British democracy. The British government has pursued stronger trade ties with China and approved plans for Beijing to build its largest embassy in Europe in London.
At the same time, MI5 has repeatedly warned about alleged Chinese intelligence activity. Last year, its director-general, Ken McCallum, said Chinese spies represented a daily national security threat and were using fake job advertisements to encourage British professionals to provide information. In November, the agency warned British lawmakers that Chinese agents were targeting them for information and seeking to influence their activities while posing as headhunters or companies.
In June, intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes alliance — Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — issued a joint warning that Chinese spies were aggressively using online employment platforms to recruit people with access to sensitive information. China’s London embassy rejected that warning as “entirely fabricated” and called it “malicious slander.”
