The British university behind the doomsday coronavirus projections that resulted in the introduction of national lockdown restrictions has signed a deal with Chinese tech giant Huawei to build tech centres on its campus in West London.
Imperial College London has landed a £5 million deal with Huawei, which will sponsor research projects, the construction of new tech facilities, as well as a 5G network for the college.
“Like other UK universities, we have received support from Huawei for high-quality and open research for several years. Such funding is subject to our robust Relationship Review policies,” Imperial College London told the Mail on Sunday.
The British government has used the research and modelling conducted by the university to inform its response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
The projections conducted by disgraced Imperial College Professor Neil Ferguson have come under increased criticism following his ousting from the government’s coronavirus response team. ‘Professor Lockdown’ resigned from his post after it was revealed he was breaking the very lockdown measures his research called for, to receive visits from his married left-wing activist lover.
Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said that the deal between the Chinese tech firm and Imperial College was symptomatic of China’s attempt to influence the United Kingdom.
“This is a perfect example of how the Chinese strategy is to use their money to insert their influence in the world’s intellectual thought process. How ironic it is Imperial that is dealing with the fallout of Covid-19. This is a deeply worrying and dangerous relationship,” Smith said.
Former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib echoed the sentiments against the deal, writing: “Not a great believer in conspiracy theories but this is suspicious, to put it mildly. It needs investigation.”
China has long been charged with pushing communist propaganda on Western universities, through the Chinese Communist Party-backed Confucious Institutes. The UK has 29 Confucious Institutes on campuses throughout the country, the second-most in the world.
The ‘cultural centres’ have been accused of stifling debate in British universities, particularly when it comes to ‘sensitive’ topics for the Beijing regime, such as Taiwan and Tibet.
Huawei, which claims to be independent of the CCP, has been at the centre of a growing controversy in the UK, following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to allow the tech firm to help build the nation’s 5G network.
The government has said that Huawei will only have access to the “periphery” of the network. However, critics, including the United States, have warned that Huawei has the capability of building backdoor access into its systems that could be used for Chinese espionage.
Earlier this month, Breitbart London reported that the U.S. is reviewing the status of all military and intelligence assets in the UK to see if they should be removed from the country as a result of the Huawei deal.
In April, Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office’s permanent undersecretary, said that the British government had made a “firm decision” to allow the Chinese company to help build the network.
A spokesman for Huawei said: “We are pleased to be working with Imperial to explore how new technologies can bring economic and social value through collaboration.”
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