‘Chinese students stealing technology from UK varsities’

London: British industrial designer Sir James Dyson has alleged that Chinese students at the country’s universities are stealing scientific and technological secrets and passing them on to their country. “They (Chinese students) go back home taking that science and technology knowledge with them and then they start competing with us. This is mad, it is madness,’’ Dyson, best know for inventing the bagless vacuum cleaner, told the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper.
British universities minister David Willetts said he will carefully study the evidence that Dyson has got.
Universities UK chief executive Nicola Dandridge said, “We are very aware this is going on and we are taking it very seriously.’’
There are an estimated 57,000 Chinese nationals studying in the UK, said to be an increase of 21% since 2009. Among them, 3,000 read electronic engineering and over 1,500 computer sciences.
These are suspected to be among the two sectors where technology is being stolen. Dyson said many Chinese students continue to do so even after leaving the country.
“Bugs are even left in computers so that the information continues to be transmitted after the researchers have returned home,’’ he alleged. Several such instances have apparently been been unearthed at research centres.
A Chinese embassy spokesman in the UK said the mission urges its students “to abide with UK’s laws and behave in the spirit of friendship and co-operation that exists between our two countries’’.
It has emerged that British academics visiting China are advised not to carry their laptops and mobile phones with them to avoid data theft or bugs being inserted in them.