Monkey-brain study with link to China's military roils top European
university
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[November 19, 2021]
By Kirsty Needham and Stine Jacobsen
SYDNEY/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -A Chinese
professor at the University of Copenhagen conducted genetic research
with the Chinese military without disclosing the connection, the
university told Reuters, in the latest example of how China's pursuit of
military-civilian technology is tapping into Western academia in the
strategically sensitive area of biotechnology.
The professor, Guojie Zhang, is also employed by Shenzhen-based genomics
giant BGI Group, which funds dozens of researchers at the university and
has its European headquarters on the university's campus.
Zhang and a student he was supervising worked with a People's Liberation
Army (PLA) laboratory on research exposing monkeys to extreme altitude
to study their brains and develop new drugs to prevent brain damage – a
priority the PLA has identified for Chinese troops operating on high
plateau .
Zhang co-published that paper with a PLA major general in January
2020. At the time the study was published, the university was "not
familiar with the fact that the paper also included authors from Chinese
military research institutions," Niels Kroer, head of its biology
department, told Reuters in an email.
Zhang confirmed that he did not inform the university of the link
because the university didn't require researchers to report co-authors
on scientific papers to it, which the university confirmed. BGI said the
study with the PLA lab "was not carried out for military purposes" and
brain research is a critical area for understanding human diseases.
China's government science academy said the study had national
defence and civilian benefits on the Tibetan plateau.
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Concerns about China's fusion of military and civilian technology, and
about universities transferring sensitive technology to China that could
help its military, have grown in the United States in recent years.
Washington agreed last month to work with the European Union on the
issue under a new joint technology and trade council. A U.S. Department
of Defense report on China's military power this month flagged concern
over Beijing using biotechnology to enhance its soldiers' performance.
The Danish incident, reported here for the first time, shows how China's
pursuit of biotechnology with a military use has also become an issue
for universities in Europe.
The European Commission says it is developing guidelines on "tackling
foreign interference" at higher education institutions; a 2020
reportfrom the Leiden Asia Centre, an independent group affiliated with
Leiden University in the Netherlands, found at least five countries in
Europe had concerns about the risks of research collaboration with
China. Some universities, including Copenhagen, have long had close
science ties to China.
Copenhagen university and two large Danish foundations who funded some
of Zhang's work said they discovered China's military was involved only
after one of the foundations saw it had been credited, incorrectly, with
financing the monkey study. The work was funded by the Chinese
government and military, the paper said.
The discovery came as Denmark's intelligence agency, PET, warned
https://ufm.dk/en/publications/2021/files/er-din-forskning-i-fare-en.pdf
Danish universities in May of the national security risks of being
unwittingly involved in foreign military research, citing "a number of
espionage activities and other foreign interference," and a student who
co-authored research into 5G technology with an engineer from a Chinese
military university. It declined to comment on specific cases.
The Chinese Academy of Science, where Zhang also has a genetics lab,
said of the study at the time that brain damage and death caused by high
altitude on the Tibetan plateau had severely hindered "national defence
construction."
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Denmark's Ministry of Higher Education and Science declined to comment
on the altitude study, but said export control rules apply to some
technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. The
Danish Business Authority said most types of gene technology are not on
its export control list.
The ministry said it had launched a broad review of the risks of
international research cooperation, led by top university heads, to
conclude at the start of next year.
The University of Copenhagen expects the review of "ethical and security
policy limits" for collaboration will result in new rules for
universities - and greater focus on the risks, its deputy director for
research and innovation Kim Brinckmann told Reuters in an email.
"We are very proud to have Prof. Zhang ... as one of our very highly
performing researchers," he said. The university did not respond to a
question about how much funding BGI provides it.
China's foreign ministry said it urged Danish institutions to "abandon
ideological prejudice and end groundless accusations and smears," and
treat their research cooperation rationally "to accrue positive energy
in the development of bilateral relations and practical cooperation."
ALTITUDE
Zhang and the head of the PLA laboratory for high-altitude research,
Major General Yuqi Gao, designed the study, which also lists BGI
founders Wang Jian and Yang Huanming as co-authors. BGI's other joint
research with Gao has involved soldiers in Tibet and Xinjiang, Reuters
reported in January.
That report was cited by two U.S. senators who called in September for
BGI to be sanctioned by the United States as a military-linked company.
Gao's research has directly improved the ability of China's
rapid-advance plateau troops to carry out training and combat missions,
according to the Chinese military's official news service.
China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences launched a four-year plan
in 2012 for troops to acclimatise and adapt to the low-oxygen Tibetan
plateau. That plan said BGI was working with Gao's lab to test soldiers
arriving in Tibet and identify genes linked to altitude sickness, which
does not affect Tibetans. It said preventing altitude sickness helped to
"manage border areas where ethnic minorities gather," and had
far-reaching economic and political significance.
BGI told Reuters the research with the military university aimed to
understand the health risk for all people travelling to and working at
high altitude.
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A view of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark October 29, 2021.
Picture taken October 29, 2021. REUTERS/Nikolaj Skydsgaard
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"The project using BGI's technology studied the
changes of the pathophysiology and genomics of the human body at
very high altitudes," a BGI spokesman said. "In China, many military
institutions ... carry out both civilian and military research," he
added.
Gao wrote in 2018 that high altitude disease "is the main
reason for reduced combat effectiveness and health damage of
soldiers at high altitudes and influences the results of war on the
highland plateau," and noted that drugs could be used in an
emergency for the rapid deployment of soldiers.
China's military has recently increased live fire drills in
Tibet after border clashes with India.
DEEP TIES
The University of Copenhagen has one of Europe's oldest genetics
institutes, and it is BGI's biggest international research partner
by count of science papers.
The ties run deep. Two former BGI chief executives, BGI's chairman,
and the founder of its animal cloning programme previously studied
or worked at Copenhagen. The university hosts more than two dozen
BGI-funded researchers undertaking science and health doctorates.
Biology head Kroer told Reuters the university had been unaware of
"claims that BGI has connections with the PLA." The university said
that other than Zhang's salary as a professor, no Danish money was
spent on the study, which animal rights activists have argued
subjected the animals to suffering and distress.
The student Zhang worked with was in China and employed by BGI, the
university said. Zhang's research team was not involved in the
animal experiments performed in China, but did analyse the genomic
data generated from the experiments, it added.
The Lundbeck Foundation, which primarily funds brain research and
was incorrectly listed as a funder of the monkey brain study, "has
not supported this area of his research, nor do we have any
knowledge about it," a spokesman said of the monkey brain project.
Lundbeck said Zhang had told them he was studying ants and genetics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2P3WGVZgJs and how this could
explain brain processes in humans.
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The foundation said it asked Zhang this year to remove its name from
the study. The Carlsberg Foundation, which controls the world's
third-largest brewer and said it gave Zhang a DKK 4 million
($623,000) fellowship in 2016, also told Reuters it had been
incorrectly listed as funding the project.
The paper was published in a Chinese journal, Zoological Research,
which declined to comment.
Zhang is on the journal's editorial board. He told Reuters the two
Danish foundations were mentioned in the paper by mistake. "We did
not spend any funding from the grants I received from these two
foundations on this project," he added in an email. The journal
published a correction removing the foundations' names in March
2021.
Lundbeck declined to comment on what impact the discovery might
have; Carlsberg has said animal experiments conducted overseas must
comply with Danish regulations, but did not comment on the military
involvement.
INTERNAL DEBATE
In June 2020, the University of Copenhagen decided to close a think
tank it had run with Shanghai's Fudan University since 2013, saying
it had adjusted its overall cooperation strategy.
The decision prompted a debate about China inside the university,
documents obtained by Reuters under freedom of information rules
show. The university held a meeting in August 2020 to discuss the
closure of Fudan and review its collaboration with China.
"China has engaged in a strategic civil-military fusion of research
that often blurs the lines to the outsider," China Studies professor
Jorgen Delman said in a note to the university's head afterwards,
recommending better screening of Chinese researchers and
consultations with Danish military intelligence to advise on "risks
and no-go areas." He declined to comment further.
Genetic cloning technology was transferred to BGI after a
researcher, Yutao Du, received her doctorate in 2007 with a team
from Danish universities that created the world's first pigs using a
technique called handmade cloning. She was praised by the Chinese
government for bringing the technology to China, which went on to
clone genetically modified pigs for the study of human neurological
illnesses.
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China's national science programme said cloned pigs were a stepping
stone to chimeras, a controversial area where China wanted to lead
the world. Chimeras are organisms composed of cells from two or more
species that may be capable of growing organs for human
transplantation.
Du is now vice president at BGI Genomics Ltd, and won promotion
within the Chinese Communist Party, becoming a delegate to its
national congress in 2017. She did not respond to a request for
comment.
(Kirsty Needham reported from Sydney, Stine Jacobsen from
Copenhagen; Edited by Sara Ledwith)
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