From universities to cars, Beijing is seeking new footholds in Europe

Yesterday, the British intelligence agency MI5 published a warning identifying the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI, sometimes referred to as the China Academy of General Technology or CAGT) as an organisation with “very strong links” to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (Beijing’s powerful intelligence ministry). According to London’s domestic intelligence services, the Chinese institute’s main purpose is to fund academic research to enhance the technical capabilities of Chinese intelligence, particularly in the fields of AI, cybersecurity, communications and steganography. In the memo, which was the subject of much discussion yesterday in government offices across half of Europe, MI5 states that it has identified over one hundred academics linked to British institutions who are involved in projects funded through the CGTRI. The scheme may have involved researchers who were unaware of the sensitive nature of the institute and the risk of information and technology being transferred. 

The MI5 advisory, however, recommends that academics “verify the ultimate source of funding when undertaking any research collaboration with Chinese institutions”. Also yesterday, the AIVD, the Dutch domestic intelligence service, published an advisory similar to that of MI5, entitled ‘The modern car as a potential spy’, a three-page leaflet aimed primarily at civil servants and individuals in the private sector who handle sensitive information, because high-tech cars have become connected devices that collect vast amounts of data which, under certain conditions, it states, ‘can be exploited by state actors’. The Dutch intelligence agency does not explicitly mention China, but according to various media outlets, the warning comes at a time when attention in Europe is growing regarding the risks associated with cars and the increasing presence of Chinese vehicles. These two warnings are partly linked to a recent investigation by CNBC journalists, who published a report the day before yesterday on John Rogers, a former senior adviser to the Federal Reserve, who was arrested in 2025 on charges of passing confidential information to a man whom US investigators identify as a Chinese intelligence agent, Jin Chuan, who went by the name Hummin Lee. The two had met in 2013 at Fudan University in China (added last July to the list of US national security restrictions), and Lee had gradually become part of Rogers’ life, helping him with his career, his trips to China and even his relationship with a Chinese woman he met on a dating site, who would later become his wife. These three recent cases illustrate how Chinese espionage has changed significantly in recent years and has penetrated the systems typical of open societies. But it serves as a major warning, particularly for countries such as Italy that treat Chinese espionage as a secondary issue. CGTRI is the technology research institute that forms part of the China General Technology Group, or Genertec, a huge state-owned conglomerate which has a subsidiary in Italy, Genertec Italia, based in Milan. Moreover, there are currently 709 agreements in force between Italian and Chinese universities, five of which are with the Harbin Institute of Technology – considered one of the most sensitive institutions due to its role in the development of military, aerospace and dual-use technologies – and one in particular, signed just over three months ago with La Sapienza University. While in Europe universities, businesses and institutions are being warned about the various entry points for Chinese espionage, in Italy these entry points continue to be viewed merely as ‘diplomacy’.