University crisis talks as China fears grow

Australian education department officials as well as national security and cybersecurity experts met university representatives last Wednesday to thrash out guidelines governing collaborative research, amid government concerns over growing Chinese encroachment, writes Phillip Coorey for Australian Financial Review.

Senior sources said the government was especially concerned with collaboration in such areas as artificial intelligence, quantum physics and some engineering disciplines. In addition, the government worries that the access China has secured to the sector may have enabled the massive data breach at the Australian National University in late 2018, and only discovered in June, which resulted in two decades of student and staff data being accessed.

After weeks of growing pressure on universities from the government and its security apparatus over growing Chinese influence, the meetings in Canberra were designed to give the university sector the clarity it has been demanding.
Full report on the AFR site