The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is ending cooperation with seven Chinese universities and three Iranian ones. According to Vice-Dean Rasmus Larsen the reason is a risk of “inappropriate knowledge transfer”.
“It could be a risk of espionage. There may be a risk that we violate export control regulations. Or it could be a risk that the international partner wants to use the research in a way that we do not support,” he says to Radio4.
DTU thus joins a number of Danish universities which drop Chinese cooperation agreements.
In June, the University of Copenhagen (KU) announced that it would stop all cooperation with the Chinese company BGI Group. Aarhus University did the same in May.
BGI stands for Beijing Genomics Institute. The ban by Aarhus University also includes other Chinese companies that work with genome sequencing.
According to Radio4, the universities’ decision came after consultation with the Police Intelligence Service (PET) and the Ministry of Education and Research.
The seven Chinese universities with which DTU’s collaboration is now ending are known as “the seven sons of national defense” because of their close ties to the Chinese army.
According to DTU, the university enters into more than 1,200 cooperation agreements per year.
