China funded Danish monkey study to help troops fight mountain wars
Disclosures add to fears over Western institutions transferring sensitive military research to Beijing
A PROFESSOR at a Danish university collaborated with a Chinese army lab on genetic research designed to help soldiers operate at high altitudes in what is seen as the latest example of how Beijing’s pursuit of military technology is tapping into Western academia.
Guojie Zhang of the University of Copenhagen co-authored a paper with a senior officer in the People’s Liberation Army on an experiment that exposed monkeys to extreme altitudes in an attempt to understand the impact of such conditions on their brains.
The object of the research, which the paper says was funded by the Chinese government and military, was to develop drugs to prevent brain damage in soldiers operating on high-plateau frontiers.
The military launched a programme to research genetic causes of altitude sickness in 2012. The urgency of such research has grown as China reinforces its military in Tibet following a series of skirmishes on its contested Himalayan border with India.
Chinese and Indian soldiers have come to blows several times since a long-standing border demarcation dispute reignited in May last year.
Oxygen levels on the Tibetan plateau, at an elevation of about 1,650ft, can be 35 per cent lower than at sea level.
Prof Zhang, a Chinese citizen, is also employed by BGI group, a Shenzhenbased genomics firm that funds multiple researchers at the University of Copenhagen and has its European headquarters on its campus.
He published the paper with Major General Yuqi Gao, the head of the PLA’S altitude research laboratory, in January 2020. The paper also listed two of BGI’S founders as co-authors.
The revelations come after a report urged ministers to protect UK universities from the unintended “risks” of growing dependence on China for research collaboration.
A report published in March by King’s College London and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government called for “a full audit of current projects with China” and safeguards to prevent research becoming dependent on crossfunding from tuition fees from international students.
Jo Johnson, the former universities minister who was lead author on the report, said at the time: “The UK urgently needs to put in place a framework for this key relationship so that it will be able to withstand rising geopolitical tensions.
“Failure to do so risks real damage to our knowledge economy. The UK needs to do a better job of measuring, managing and mitigating risks that are at present poorly understood and monitored.”
Denmark’s intelligence agency warned its universities in May that they may unwittingly become involved in foreign military research. It cited the example of a student who co-authored research into 5G technology with an engineer from a Chinese military university. Last month a US defence department report said China may be using biotechnology to enhance its soldiers’ performance.
Niels Kroer, head of the University of Copenhagen’s biology department, said the institution was not aware that the co-authors included Chinese military officers when it was published.
Prof Zhang said he did not inform the university of the link because it did not require researchers to report co-authors on scientific papers. There is no suggestion he broke university rules. BGI said the study
“was not carried out for military purposes” and brain research is a critical area for understanding human diseases. Experiments on monkeys are controversial but considered by many scientists to be essential for furthering our understanding of the human brain. Some have suggested that China and Japan, which have fewer restrictions on the use of monkeys in lab research, have overtaken Western researchers in the field as a result.
Last year Nikos Logothetis, a neuroscientist at Germany’s Max Pank institute said he was relocating to China as he had faced protests over the use of monkeys.