An investigation into allegations that Sheffield Hallam University faced sustained pressure from China to shut down human rights research has been referred to counter-terrorism police.The BBC and the Guardian newspaper has been reporting that documents show that China had waged a two-year campaign of intimidation and harassment, including demands the university stop sensitive research by one of its professors into claims of forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China.A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said the force has referred the investigation on because the “allegations fall under Section 3 of the National Security Act”.Section 3 of the act deals with “assisting a foreign intelligence service”.An offence is committed if someone behaves in a way that “intends that conduct to materially assist a foreign intelligence service in carrying out UK-related activities,” or in conduct likely to assist that service.Internal documents from Sheffield Hallam University were released under a Subject Access Request to Professor Laura Murphy, whose research is alleged to have been targeted.They showed university staff in China had been threatened by individuals identified as being from China’s National Security Service, who demanded the research by Prof Murphy taking place in Sheffield be shut down.The documents went on to state that “a decision by the university not to publish a final phase of the research on forced labour in China was communicated to the National Security Service… Immediately relations improved and the threat to staff wellbeing appears to be removed”.China is …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnAn investigation into allegations that Sheffield Hallam University faced sustained pressure from China to shut down human rights research has been referred to counter-terrorism police.The BBC and the Guardian newspaper has been reporting that documents show that China had waged a two-year campaign of intimidation and harassment, including demands the university stop sensitive research by one of its professors into claims of forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China.A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said the force has referred the investigation on because the “allegations fall under Section 3 of the National Security Act”.Section 3 of the act deals with “assisting a foreign intelligence service”.An offence is committed if someone behaves in a way that “intends that conduct to materially assist a foreign intelligence service in carrying out UK-related activities,” or in conduct likely to assist that service.Internal documents from Sheffield Hallam University were released under a Subject Access Request to Professor Laura Murphy, whose research is alleged to have been targeted.They showed university staff in China had been threatened by individuals identified as being from China’s National Security Service, who demanded the research by Prof Murphy taking place in Sheffield be shut down.The documents went on to state that “a decision by the university not to publish a final phase of the research on forced labour in China was communicated to the National Security Service… Immediately relations improved and the threat to staff wellbeing appears to be removed”.China is …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
