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Revealed: Huawei’s Oxbridge millions

British universities have received twice as much funding from Huawei as previous estimates suggest, according to new figures obtained by The Spectator. Freedom of Information requests sent by Steerpike show that a further £28.7 million has been received from the Chinese tech giant by nine leading UK universities, on top of the sums identified in a landmark report by the China Research Group in June. By far the biggest recipient of donations and research grants is Cambridge University which has taken £25.7 million from Huawei alone since 2016.

Huawei has been banned from participating in Britain’s 5G network from 2027 amid security concerns. Last year MPs on the Commons Defence Select Committee claimed in a report that Huawei is ‘strongly linked to the Chinese state and the Chinese Communist Party despite its statements to the contrary’, citing its ownership model and the subsidies it has received. The Chinese telecoms giant has repeatedly denied that it is controlled or linked to the Chinese regime. 

Cambridge’s links to the company have come under increasing scrutiny in the past two years. In February 2020, constituent college Jesus published a report about telecommunications reforms which praised Huawei and carried a foreword from Stephen Toope, university Vice-Chancellor. Five months later the Times reported that the company paid £150,000 for the report alongside £200,000 for its Dialogue Centre from a branch of the Chinese State Council. In September 2021 Huawei was accused of ‘infiltrating’ a separate University of Cambridge research centre after most of its academics were found to have ties to it.

Now Mr S has discovered that Cambridge has taken 31 research grants over the past five years, worth a total of £18.3 million or an average of £592,000 each. The largest sum was £2.9 million in February 2018; some £5.7 million has been granted since February last year. Cambridge also took £7.4 million in donations from Huawei over three different financial years since 2016.

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