Ambassador tells Chinese students at Cambridge University to ‘serve the motherland’

The University of Cambridge hosted a private visit from the Chinese ambassador last week, during which he told Chinese students to “serve the motherland”, The Telegraph can reveal.

Zheng Zeguang, the country’s ambassador to the UK, was welcomed to the institution last Thursday where he held discussions with senior officials, including Prof Deborah Prentice, Cambridge’s vice-chancellor.

Mr Zheng was also allowed to pay a “special visit” to Chinese students during the trip, where he told them to “take patriotism [for China] as the foundation” of their studies at Cambridge.

He was also allowed to hold meetings with Chinese students at Oxford and Nottingham universities in April.

A report of the Cambridge visit in Chinese media said the ambassador told around 20 Chinese students they should “serve the motherland as soon as they finish their studies and become pillars of the country who are capable of shouldering heavy responsibilities”.

Mr Zheng also “briefed the students on the achievements of China’s development [and] inspired them to love the country”, it added.

Cambridge currently hosts about 2,000 Chinese students, who make up the largest international intake at the university.

It marks the latest in several private meetings between China’s ambassador to the UK and Chinese students enrolled at British universities in recent months.

Mr Zheng visited the universities of York and Birmingham last summer, where he met with Chinese students and called on them to “keep in mind” the teachings of Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.

None of the universities appear to have shared any details of the events on their official websites or UK social media, although Chinese state photographers were welcomed to the events.

It comes after growing concerns about Chinese influence over UK universities and fears that Chinese Communist Party officials are surveilling students from afar.

The Telegraph understands that the Chinese embassy has persistently messaged some universities in recent months asking to arrange meetings with their Chinese student bodies on campus.

‘Exerting influence’

MPs and peers on Parliament’s intelligence and security committee claimed last year that Beijing had actively sought to “monitor and control Chinese students’ behaviour” at British universities through a network of more than 90 student Chinese student groups, partly funded by the Chinese embassy.

It warned that there was a “culture of fear and suspicion among Chinese students in the UK”, and that “pressure is exerted on institutions, academics and students to prevent engagement with topics that harm the positive narrative presented by the Chinese Communist Party”.

Lord Patten, the outgoing Oxford chancellor, told The Telegraph last week that he was concerned that universities are treating Chinese students differently to their peers “for fear of being ticked off by the Chinese government”.

“How do you make sure that there aren’t reports going back to the Chinese government and the Chinese authorities about the way another Chinese student or a Hong Kong student is behaving? I mean, we shouldn’t pretend to ourselves that those things don’t happen,” he said.

More than 150,000 Chinese students are currently enrolled at British universities and until recently they made up the largest foreign student intake of any country.

The number of students from India overtook China for the first time last year, but applications from many countries are thought to have dwindled in recent months because of the new ban on student dependants.

It could mean Chinese students, who are favoured by universities since they typically come to the UK without family members and have more disposable income, will be lured to fill the gap.

Previous analysis by The Telegraph found they contribute about £5.9 billion to the UK university sector through tuition fees alone.

A report by the Civitas, a think tank, published last November also showed that UK higher education institutions received up to £156 million in funding from Chinese sources between 2017 and 2023.

About a third of that, or as much as £51 million, came from sources linked to the Chinese military or entities banned by the US, the study claimed.

Cambridge University received between £18 million and £44 million from 24 separate Chinese entities over that period, according to freedom of information requests.

At last week’s meeting in Cambridge, Mr Zheng and Prof Prentice are said to have discussed “the prospect of continuing to develop mutually beneficial cooperation with Chinese universities”, according to a post on the Chinese government’s website.

It added that the Chinese embassy “hoped that Cambridge’s collaboration with China will deliver more fruitful outcomes”.

Parliament’s intelligence and security committee report, which was published last year, said that “academia provides China with a key means of exerting influence” in Britain.

It added: “Chinese attempts to interfere with and stifle debate amongst the academic community in the UK are a significant problem, made possible by China’s academic ‘buying power’.”

Security concerns ‘groundless’

Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has so far declined to call China a “threat” since winning the election, but has launched a major new defence review and a separate audit of UK-China relations.

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former secretary-general of Nato and the external head of the review, warned in July that China was among the countries that posed a “deadly” threat to Britain.

He said China was becoming increasingly confident and that “what happens in the Asia-Pacific can happen in the Euro-Atlantic very quickly afterwards”.

A Cambridge University spokesman said: “Like many other universities, we regularly welcome overseas ambassadors who ask to visit students from their countries.

“The University of Cambridge is not and never has been dependent on China. Less than 1 per cent of our annual research grant is derived from China.”

The Chinese embassy told The Telegraph that its official policy is to “encourage Chinese students studying in the UK to return to China and contribute to the nation after completing their studies here, and it reflects the expectations of the Chinese government towards overseas students”.

A spokesman added: “Educational exchanges and co-operation between China and the UK are in the interest of both sides.

“The ambassador and our diplomats will continue to visit British educational institutions and schools at invitation, to promote bilateral exchanges and co-operation with the UK side.

“The so-called security concerns over China-UK educational co-operation are groundless.

“We care deeply about overseas Chinese students and are resolute in safeguarding their personal safety and legitimate rights and interests, and will continue to learn about their situations through visits and provide them with better services.

“It is also the common practice and duties for the embassies of other countries.”

A spokesman for Oxford University said: “The vice-chancellor, as part of her duties, regularly meets with ambassadors to the UK. She was pleased to accept Mr Zheng’s offer to meet, making him the seventh ambassador she had met since being in office.

“Under our free speech policy, students are at liberty to attend events expressing a variety of views, and also to explore challenging and dissenting views.”

The Telegraph understands that no university staff were present in the meeting between Mr Zheng and Oxford students during the visit to the university in April and that it was arranged independently by the Chinese embassy.

Sam Dunning, director of UK-China Transparency, said: “As highlighted by research from Amnesty International, UK-China Transparency, and others, the Chinese Communist Party monitors and harasses dissident students at UK universities. There is strong evidence that Chinese diplomatic staff are complicit in this.

“UK universities have a legal responsibility to take steps to protect the freedom of speech of all their students. Did Cambridge executives raise this with the ambassador? Will they speak out in defence of their members? Or is this a taboo topic for our great centres of learning?”