More than 50 collegians with alleged army links have left the country after rules were tightened to prevent the theft of research
Dozens of Chinese college students enrolled at UK universities have left the country in the past three years because hardened defenses have prevented the theft of sensitive academic research, London’s spy chief has claimed.
More than 50 students with links to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have left the UK since the government reformed its Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS), MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said on Wednesday in a speech to business and education leaders in London.
The crackdown on the theft of defense-related technology and other sensitive research materials is part of the UK and US push to counter “the growing threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” according to McCallum, who shared the stage on Wednesday with FBI director Chris Wray. “Both our countries have had to take action to stem CCP acquisition of cutting-edge national security advantage,” the MI5 chief said.
However, the 50 students cited by McCallum represent a tiny fraction of the approximately 150,000 Chinese nationals who are studying at UK colleges and universities. While acknowledging the “Chinese diaspora’s hugely positive contribution to UK life,” he accused the CCP of conducting “a coordinated campaign on a grand scale” to target Western academia, high-tech businesses, military sources and related organizations.
“The most game-changing challenge we face comes from the Chinese Communist Party,” McCallum said. “It’s covertly applying pressure across the globe. This might feel abstract, but it’s real and it’s pressing. We need to talk about it. We need to act.”
While also decrying the Russian military offensive against Ukraine and the immediate challenges posed by right-wing and Islamic extremists, McCallum said the CCP was a serious threat to Western interests. He said the CCP was focused on stealing core technologies where it couldn’t otherwise catch up with the West by 2050 and was targeting cutting-edge advances in such areas as artificial intelligence.
Wray argued that the Chinese government posed “the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security.” The FBI opens a China-related investigation every 12 hours, on average, marking a 1,300% increase in case load since 2015.
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LONDON, Jul 06 (IPS) – When Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – gained independence from Britain in 1948 after almost 450 years of colonial rule under three western powers, it was one Asia’s most stable and prosperous democracies.Read the full story, “Sri Lankan Beggar’s Operaâ€, on globalissues.org →find more fun & mates at SoShow now !
Thousands of Afghans that were promised U.S. visas remain on the run from the Taliban. The Biden administration, however, quickly cleared red tape for Ukrainians after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Large Hadron Collider physicists discovered three new types of “exotic” particles
Scientists have discovered three “exotic types of particles” in a step closer to unraveling how the universe works, the European nuclear research center CERN said on Tuesday.
Physicists operating the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) found evidence of three new combinations of quarks, elementary particles that form matter. Usually, quarks come together in groups of twos and threes and make up particles such as protons and neutrons.
In rare cases, however, quarks form groups of four and five, the so-called “tetraquarks” and “pentaquarks.” In this particular experiment, a new kind of “pentaquark” and the first-ever pair of “tetraquarks” were detected. The latest development is consistent with the Standard Model, a theory that currently provides the best answer on how the universe is built on a microscopic level.
“We’re witnessing a period of discovery similar to the 1950s, when a ‘particle zoo’ of hadrons started being discovered and ultimately led to the quark model of conventional hadrons in the 1960s. We’re creating ‘particle zoo 2.0,’ said Niels Tuning, physics coordinator working on the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment. Hadrons are any subatomic particle that consists of quarks.
“Finding new kinds of tetraquarks and pentaquarks and measuring their properties will help theorists develop a unified model of exotic hadrons,” LHCb spokesperson Chris Parkes said, noting that the exact nature of the latter is largely unknown.
The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator that has a 27km ring of magnets. It boosts two high-energy particle beams almost to the speed of light before they collide. First launched in 2008, it upended the world of physics in 2012 when it helped to discover the elusive Higgs boson, a development that allowed checking the accuracy of the Standard Model, validating years of scientific research. Higgs boson also allows other particles to build up mass as they pass through its field.
Physicists say they’ve found evidence in data from Europe’s Large Hadron Collider for three never-before-seen combinations of quarks, just as the world’s largest particle-smasher is beginning a new round of high-energy experiments.
LONDON, Jul 06 (IPS) – When Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – gained independence from Britain in 1948 after almost 450 years of colonial rule under three western powers, it was one Asia’s most stable and prosperous democracies.
