【海图荐文】禁止与华为合作将侵犯学术自由？

By Ellie Bothwell

Twitter: @elliebothwell

Source: Getty

The head of a UK university with a major research link to Huawei has suggested that an institutional ban on working with the Chinese technology giant would run counter to academic freedom, adding that universities should “not be dictated” to by geopolitics.

Max Lu, the Chinese-Australian vice-chancellor of the University of Surrey, told Times Higher Educationthat it was not the place of universities to stop working with the company “unless there is a national policy” demanding such a move.

There are no simple solutions in dealing with Huawei

Huawei has funded a £5 million project at Surrey to develop the 5G mobile communications network.

“The [UK] government has not announced any policy that would rule out Huawei, and there is no pressure from government on universities saying you cannot work with Huawei,” he said.

“If there is a large body of evidence of activities of espionage or compromising national security, the government will make a decision.”

Several leading research universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oxford, have said they will refuse to accept new research funding from the company amid concern in some quarters that its products could be used by the Chinese government to conduct espionage or disrupt communications.

However, Professor Lu said that “any equipment from any supplier carries software risks” and the risks for Surrey in working with Huawei were very low because the partnership was centred on basic research.

He added that “academic freedom applies both ways”, arguing that if universities want to maintain their neutrality they “should not be affected or dictated [to] by geopolitics, which in its very nature is very transient”.

“The mission of universities is to change society, change lives and make the world a better place. If you’re going to change your research agenda according to geopolitics, you will not be able to make a sustained contribution to society, and you will become an instrument of politics,” he said.

“We should transcend national politics or international geopolitics. We should transcend all the other influences.”

Professor Lu spoke to THE at the THE Innovation and Impact Summit earlier this month.

The vice-chancellor, who serves on the board of UK Research and Innovation, also offered a relatively optimistic view of Brexit compared with many of his peers, claiming that “the Brexit effect on international education is very temporary and will not have a long-lasting impact”.

Even if students from the European Union will have to pay much higher tuition fees to study in the UK, “universities will still find a way to take and welcome EU students, and EU students will find a way to finance their study. They will still come because of the strength of the sector,” he said.

Regarding research, he added that collaboration between UK and European researchers was “more valuable than the money” from the EU.

“If we [leave the EU], then the collaboration and funding mechanisms will probably be in a different shape and form, but they will continue. There will be some mechanism set up to continue the collaboration post-Brexit,” he said.

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海国图智研究院

海国图智研究院是新型社会独立智库，位列2018中国社会智库排行榜第五，由芝加哥大学政治学博士、暨南大学陈定定教授于2015年在深圳发起创立，总部位于广州 。

“海国图智”名称源于清代启蒙思想家、中国近代“睁眼看世界”第一人魏源所撰《海国图志》。研究院聘请海内外知名学者及专家组成学术委员会及理事会，由院长负责统筹协调国内外优秀青年学者及专家资源，致力于通过高质高效的研究团队、独立客观的研究视角及强大的资源整合能力，对中国和世界当前面临的问题和挑战从创新思维角度提出具有实际意义的解决方案。

旨在为中国公众及政策制定者提供科学、公正及客观的政策分析、研究报告及学术向导，在国际政治经济、国际安全、国家战略及国民认知等方面推动学术研究及政策观察，为政府、企业以及个人客户提供一流智力支持和决策咨询服务。