Silencing Scholars: Why Europe Cannot Afford to Ignore China’s Influence

Authors: Björn Alpermann, Vanessa Frangville, Rune Steenberg

31 December 2025

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How China’s Pressure Campaign Reaches European Universities

When news broke that Sheffield Hellam University had allegedly attempted to shut down research by Professor Laura Murphy into Chinese supply-chains and alleged forced labor practices, this sparked an uproar. Major British news outlets reported on what appeared to be a case of a UK university infringing on academic freedom under pressure from Chinese authorities and security agencies. Murphy’s work focused on supply-chains and alleged forced labor in relation to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), a region synonymous with large-scale human rights abuses since the mass incarceration campaign of 2017-2019.

This is not the first time China has sought to silence academic critics in Europe. Despite the lifting of Chinese sanctions against EU parliamentarians, targeted European academics and research institutions remain under these restrictions imposed in early 2021. Chinese efforts to limit academic freedom in Europe by threatening researchers have become part of a “new normal”, one we must not accept.

Our Project: Remote Ethnography of XUAR

To push back against this, we decided to go public about our own experiences during a three-year EU-funded project, “Remote Ethnography of XUAR”, now drawing to a close. The project aimed to develop methodologies to study the Uyghur regions from afar as on-the-ground research – once possible – became unsafe and unethical for our interlocutors. Instead, we relied on diverse sources such as diaspora interviews, government documents, social media analyses and remote sensing via satellite.

From left to right: Vanessa Frangville, Rune Steenberg and Björn Alpermann , Principal Investigators of the Remote Xuar project. .

One key objective was to train a new generation of researchers in these methods and strengthen independent research capacities in Europe. We organized colloquia, workshops and summer schools across our three universities, advertised via academic networks. Apparently, this piqued the interest of Chinese authorities: one of our Chinese students reported being approached by security agencies while on a home visit and asked to record our lectures on XUAR. The student informed us instead, but we do not know if this was an isolated case. In fact, we have reason to suspect that some of our workshops may have been infiltrated.

Escalating Pressure and Cyber Threats

Over the past year, Chinese interest in our work intensified, as we published more, including a blog and a podcast series. Since April 2025 and for months, team members in Czech Republic, Belgium and Germany have received several phishing mails aimed at compromising cybersecurity and seizing control of our digital devices. Other attempts were more personal – a journalist reaching out on behalf of a “Singapore-based consultancy” seeking details about our work and travels in Central Asia; an international NGO with no track record in our field requesting information about forced labor practices, etc. Fortunately, we identified these threats and acted accordingly. But their persistence shows danger is far from over.

China’s Narrative vs. Reality

China publicly claims that Xinjiang is “back to normal” and open for all to visit and “to see with their own eyes”. This, apparently, does not include researchers with a critical bent. When one team member tried to enter from Kyrgyzstan, he was held back at the border, questioned for several hours and sent back without explanation. Thus, it seems clear to us that China only welcomes “naïve” tourists – not researchers fluent in local languages and familiar with ethnic communities who might pierce the façade the Party-state wants the world to see. Also, after years of working with survivors from the so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang who had fled to Kazakhstan, this team member was also denied access to Kazakhstan in spring 2025. Again, without explanation and again with strong suspicions that Chinese pressure may play a role. Several researchers and interlocutors we know have been directly or indirectly contacted by the Chinese police forces or Chinese citizens seemingly acting in for the authorities in order to intimidate them. This is part of a wider pattern of the well-documented systematic intimidation of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and others who have left Xinjiang. The personal threat to us as academics – especially those of us, like the authors of this article and as Laura Murphy, who have no relatives inside China – is minimal when compared to that laid on so many Uyghurs and Kazakhs. Still, it is significant, not least because it limits academic freedom and thus hinders the process of truth finding and nuanced reporting so crucial for any ambitions to a functioning democracy.

Risks Beyond China

Having researched Chinese politics and ethnic issues for a long time, we entered this project aware of the risks involved. In fact, one of us had previously faced attacks from the Chinese embassy. Fortunately, all our three universities have stood up for us and academic freedom, rather than caving in when under pressure. Our greatest concern, however, is for colleagues and interlocutors from the Uyghur region who still have relatives there. The threat is so real that there are many things we dare not report here, for fear of retaliation on their families at home. They are the most vulnerable to transnational repression. Risks extend beyond China and the EU: one of our partners, Atajurt, a human rights NGO based in Kazakhstan recently faced a crackdown by the Kazakh authorities and a number of arrests. Similarly events our researchers have participated in in Central Asia, South East Asia, Turkey and Europe have received pressure to cancel from Chinese institutions and agents. While we have no evidence linking this to our collaboration, it illustrates the danger for partners in countries that cannot withstand Chinese pressures.

Defending academic freedom is a collective responsibility

To safeguard Europe’s own academic freedom, we must strengthen our institutions and extend solidarity to research collaborators abroad. China is not the only entity pressuring European institutions as also recent pressure on pro-Palestine academics and students have shown. Transnational repression is real and defending academic freedom is not optional—it is a collective responsibility. The case of Sheffield Hellam University is just the tip of the iceberg. If European research is to remain independent and credible, we must build resilient institutions, protect vulnerable scholars, and confront authoritarian interference head-on.

NOTE: A German translation of this text was published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Dec. 17, 2025, N4) under the title „Zum Schweigen gebrachte Wissenschaft“.

The content presented in this blog post reflects the personal views of the authors and does not represent the views or positions of the research project, institution, or funding agency.