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UK university halts Xinjiang research after alleged Chinese intimidation campaign
Sheffield Hallam University abandoned research into alleged Uyghur forced labor in China's Xinjiang region following a two-year campaign of threats, website blockades, and direct interference by Chinese security officials, internal documents obtained by the BBC reveal.
The university's decision to suppress the final report-led by Professor Laura Murphy, a human rights and contemporary slavery expert-came after Chinese authorities allegedly pressured staff in China, blocked access to university websites, and disrupted recruitment of Chinese students. In July 2024, university officials admitted in an internal email that maintaining business ties with China while publishing the research had become "untenable."
Government intervention and academic backlash
When the UK government learned of the case, then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned his Chinese counterpart against suppressing academic freedoms, according to the BBC. The issue was also raised with China's senior education minister. Despite this, Sheffield Hallam halted publication of Murphy's final research in late 2024 and, by early 2025, informed her that her work on Chinese supply chains and forced labor could "not continue."
Murphy initiated legal action, alleging the university failed to protect her academic freedom. Documents she obtained through a subject access request showed administrators had "negotiated directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market," she told the BBC. The university has since apologized and permitted her to resume her research.
"I'd never seen anything quite so patently explicit about the extent to which a university would go to ensure they have Chinese student income."
Professor Laura Murphy, Sheffield Hallam University
Escalating pressure and financial stakes
Internal emails reveal China's foreign ministry denounced the university in 2022 as part of the "disreputable vanguard of anti-China rhetoric." By August 2022, China had blocked access to Sheffield Hallam's websites, crippling student recruitment. A 2024 risk summary detailed visits by Chinese National Security Service officers, who questioned local staff for hours and demanded the research cease. The university's English-language testing portal-critical for Chinese applicants-was also shut down.
Financial records show Sheffield Hallam earned £3.8 million from China and Hong Kong in 2021/22. However, Chinese student numbers, which had reached 500 in 2018, collapsed during the pandemic and failed to recover. Administrators warned in 2024 that the research had placed "the continuation of the university's scholarly activity with and in China and Hong Kong at risk."
Legal threats and insurance withdrawal
The university's reversal followed a 2023 defamation lawsuit by Smart Shirts Ltd, a Hong Kong garment supplier named in Murphy's research. A December 2024 High Court ruling deemed the report "defamatory," prompting insurers to withdraw coverage for all research under the university's Social and Economic Research Institute. By August 2024, officials decided to close Murphy's unit, returning unused funds despite "significant offers of continued funding."
Broader implications for academic freedom
Murphy's case has reignited debates over UK universities' vulnerability to foreign interference. Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, called Sheffield Hallam's actions "incredibly worrying," urging safeguards against "overreach by foreign powers." A government spokesperson told the BBC that "any attempt by a foreign state to intimidate or harm individuals in the UK will not be tolerated."
The Chinese Embassy in London dismissed Murphy's reports as "seriously flawed" and "politicised," alleging US funding ties. Murphy confirmed receiving grants from US agencies, including USAID and the State Department, for her China-related work. The embassy insisted allegations of forced labor "cannot withstand basic fact-check."
"If we see limitations being made on the kind of research that goes on in these universities, I think we should be alarmed."
Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, patron of the Helena Kennedy Centre
Financial pressures and systemic risks
Baroness Kennedy warned that UK universities, facing chronic underfunding, are increasingly reliant on Chinese student fees-"one of the ways of dealing with the financial crises." Sheffield Hallam enrolled just 73 Chinese students in 2024/25, but the Chinese Embassy noted over 200,000 Chinese students study in the UK annually, framing educational cooperation as "a driving force in bilateral ties."
Murphy, whose work has been cited in the UK, Canada, and Australia, argued that underfunding leaves institutions exposed: "As long as the university system in the UK is so wildly underfunded as it is now, universities will be vulnerable to attacks like this."
