Crackdown on Chinese Students Raises Fears for UK Tech Ambitions

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Crackdown on Chinese Students Raises Fears for UK Tech Ambitions

Chinese national Luo, 23, was thrilled when he was accepted into Cambridge University’s electrical engineering PhD program in 2021.

All he needed before starting was clearance from a UK government agency that vets postgraduate students who study topics that could have military applications. Luo considered that a formality, he told Bloomberg in an interview, considering he’d already been green-lit for his masters degree at the same school.

But he was rejected. So he applied again, and was rejected again.

The agency that reviewed his application — the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — gave no reason. But since Luo couldn’t fathom being considered a security risk, he applied 14 more times over the next two years while enduring Covid-19 lockdown from his hometown in Sichuan, tweaking the applications to what he hoped would be seen as less sensitive subjects each time to no avail, before switching his research to a field not covered by the FCDO’s vetting process.

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