In recent days, Chinese researcher Xiaolong Zhu from Queensland University of Technology in Australia has become the subject of news reports. However, for him, this is not good news at all. Zhu’s visa for studying in Australia was rejected due to his suspected involvement in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Australian national scientific institution has also cut ties with Zhu.
According to reports from The Australian, 35-year-old Chinese citizen Xiaolong Zhu arrived in Australia on a tourist visa in 2018 and was admitted to the doctoral program at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
In 2020, the Australian government determined that Zhu’s presence in Australia may be “directly or indirectly related” to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), ultimately leading to the rejection of his visa application to develop advanced drone systems at QUT.
Over the past four years, while Zhu has been fighting against the rejection of his visa and potential deportation, he has continued to conduct potentially sensitive research on drone technology at QUT.
Legal expert Brendan Walker-Munro from Southern Cross University wrote in The Conversation that the Australian government’s refusal to grant Zhu a visa may be related to his previous education at Beihang University in Beijing, which has close ties to the Chinese military and is a major developer of ballistic missiles and stealth aircraft.
In August 2020, The Australian revealed that the Chinese government was recruiting dozens of Australian scientists for a secret program, mainly targeting scientists of Chinese descent. The Thousand Talents Program offers generous compensation and benefits to scholars worldwide. FBI Director Christopher Wray described the program as Chinese economic espionage and a national security threat. Concerns have been raised that the research conducted by these scholars could be used for military purposes.
Shadow Minister for Home Affairs James Paterson wrote a letter to QUT President Margaret Sheil last week questioning why Xiaolong Zhu was still at the university’s Robotics Center.
Paterson, who previously chaired the powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, raised concerns about the potential national security risks associated with Zhu’s work in dual-use research that could be exploited by foreign forces like China for military purposes.
As a response to Paterson’s national security concerns, CSIRO confirmed that they had “terminated” their collaboration with doctoral candidate Xiaolong Zhu in August 2022.
QUT earlier informed The Australian that Xiaolong Zhu, as a “lawful non-Australian citizen with study rights,” is continuing his research on drone navigation technology for a higher degree with a scholarship.
Paterson questioned QUT’s decision to maintain its relationship with Zhu after CSIRO had severed ties with him and raised doubts about the university’s judgment on national security risks compared to the federal government.
Paterson emphasized that research like Zhu’s in operating drones in GPS-denied environments for civilian search and rescue missions has clear military applications, especially in conflict scenarios where GPS may be compromised.
Moreover, he expressed concerns about the university’s support for research in high-risk dual-use fields by students from authoritarian countries like China that are known for intellectual property theft and coercion.
Military-civil fusion is a national strategy of the Chinese Communist Party with corresponding institutions and facilities aimed at leveraging civilian resources, technology, and capital for military purposes, including through infiltration for technology theft.
In recent years, the US and its allies have become increasingly vigilant about China’s military-civil fusion strategies, leading to cases where Chinese students and scholars are denied entry to the US due to suspected links to the Chinese Communist Party or military.
According to reports by The Washington Post, several Chinese students and visiting scholars have faced questioning by US customs officials upon arrival, leading to visa cancellations and immediate deportation for some individuals with suspected affiliations.
In the past three months, over a dozen doctoral students studying science at major US universities like Yale and Johns Hopkins who returned to China to visit family were denied reentry and sent back home immediately.
In May 2020, the Trump administration issued Executive Order PP10043, barring Chinese students and scholars with F or J visas (student and visiting scholar visas) from entering the US if they were “associated with the Chinese military.” This policy was continued by the Biden administration.
The US government granted customs and border protection authorities the power to refuse entry to Chinese graduate students and postdoctoral scholars associated with the Chinese military, while undergraduate students were not included in the ban.