On August 18, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian presided over a regular press conference. A journalist asked, according to the Australian newspaper, that in recent days, Australian Foreign Minister Margot Kitt had requested the Australian National University and the Queensland University to terminate their cooperation agreements with Chinese universities, namely Shandong University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. What is China's comment on this?
"The Chinese side opposes generalizing national security concepts and restricting normal international education and scientific research cooperation." Lin Jian said.
According to a government letter disclosed by the Australian newspaper on August 14 local time, Australian Foreign Minister Margot James officially announced that the cooperation arrangement between the Australian National University and Shandong University is ‘invalid and non-executable’, and required the university to complete the termination of related projects by January 18 next year.
Meanwhile, a research collaboration between the University of Queensland and the Chinese Academy of Sciences focusing on the analgesic applications of native Australian plants has also been suspended.
Reports indicate that the decision was made under Australia’s Foreign Relations Act, on the grounds of so-called “national security”. The Australian National University stated that it will comply with government directives, and also mentioned that students already enrolled can choose to transfer to existing undergraduate or postgraduate programs at the university to continue their studies.
Regarding the timing of this action, local Australian media One News Australia posted criticism on the X platform, pointing out that the Labor government has been slow to act on relevant issues. "Since Huang Yingxian took office as foreign minister in May 2022, she had full legal authority under the Foreign Relations Act, but it was never utilized. It wasn't until late July this year, when the U.S. Pentagon listed Shandong University on a list of restricted entities, that she announced two weeks later that the aforementioned cooperation arrangements were invalid and unenforceable."
