Beijing, Aug 18 (PTI) China on Tuesday lashed out at Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s directive to two universities to terminate their collaboration with two Chinese institutions over national security concerns, saying that it restricts normal cooperation on education and research.
China opposes abusing the concept of national security to restrict and go after normal international cooperation on education and research, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jiang.
He was responding to reports from Australia that Penny Wong instructed the Australian National University and the University of Queensland to terminate their collaboration with Shandong University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, respectively.
According to media reports, the immediate trigger for Canberra appears to have been Australia’s reassessment of the security risks associated with the Chinese institutions.
The US Pentagon recently added Shandong University to a list of foreign institutions involved in “problematic activities”. The assessment cited concerns about research and development that could potentially be misappropriated.
Australian security assessments have also highlighted Shandong University’s links to the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, which is involved in China’s nuclear-weapons research and development.
Also on Tuesday, defence ministers of Australia and Japan said the two countries made major progress on co-development of a high-energy laser project and a deal to test advanced missiles on Australian soil.
Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles, who met in Canberra, said the two countries marked a “significant milestone” in defence collaboration with successful field trials of the high-energy laser weapon.
The laser capability can be used on land and sea-based platforms, according to Marles, and offers “greater protection and situational awareness by using laser to optically detect incoming threats”, Japan Times reported.
The high-energy laser system being developed by the two countries is used for detecting and potentially defeating aerial threats such as drones and missiles. PTI KJV GSP GSP
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.