While I'm connected neither to UK academia nor to UK counter-intel - the article feels like a wall of blather, written by spies to dim to realize that China could spin up a hundred new front companies in the time it takes them to type "CGTRI". Let alone consider that on many sensitive topics, accepting Chinese research funding might be the least bad option still available to the "sun set long, long ago" British Empire.
While I'm connected neither to UK academia nor to UK counter-intel - the article feels like a wall of blather, written by spies to dim to realize that China could spin up a hundred new front companies in the time it takes them to type "CGTRI". Let alone consider that on many sensitive topics, accepting Chinese research funding might be the least bad option still available to the "sun set long, long ago" British Empire.
> China could spin up a hundred new front companies in the time it takes them to type "CGTRI".
I'm guessing even dim academics might now be wary of a Chinese company having no provenance.
And definitely of 100.
Sounds less of a threat than their Nazi machete-wielding agents
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/30/mi5-issues-s...
Now now. There was only one.
May we hope the only intelligence the Chinese will now lose is that from UK's least intelligent academics?