The former head of the Australian National University has defended the setting up of a joint venture with a Chinese university now blacklisted by the Australian and American governments because of its alleged close links with the Chinese nuclear bomb program.
Brian Schmidt, who was ANU vice-chancellor until 2024, said there were no Australian national security concerns when the Shandong University-ANU Joint Science College was set up.
"At the time, this was not particularly unusual," the Nobel laureate told The Canberra Times.
"Shandong is not a particularly remarkable university. At the time, it seemed an unremarkable university which didn't do any weapons research," Professor Schmidt said.
But last week, the foreign affairs ministry ordered the ANU to end its joint venture. The Trump administration had already put a block on American universities dealing with Shandong.
It's not clear what suddenly changed, whether there was new hard information about the military implications of its research or whether the political attitude towards China had hardened in Washington.
But Shandong University has a close relationship with the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics which is one of the bodies alleged to be driving China's development of nuclear weapons, according to associate professor Brendan Walker-Munro of Southern Cross University. He is also an "expert associate" at the ANU's National Security College, specialising in "the use of law and policy to protect university research from national security threats such as espionage, foreign interference, hacking, and technology transfer".
The biggest risk, Dr Walker-Munro felt, would be if the ANU was unwittingly using Australian taxpayers' money in research that could contribute to weapons of mass destruction. He didn't feel this passed "the pub test", given China's recent testing of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.
Dr Walker-Munro felt there was a second national security implication: Chinese students at the Joint Science College would end up with an Australian degree, which might obscure the origins of their education and make it easier for them to get security clearances in the future.
But Professor Schmidt who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011 and who continues as the pre-eminent astronomer at the ANU (as well as an applauded winemaker north of Canberra) said that the students involved in the ANU-Shandong Joint Science College were undergraduates and not involved in research.
He believed the venture was part of Australia's "good soft diplomacy". "These things are always complicated. We did this when it was a way for us to attract good students, and help train scientific leaders who would take on Australian values.
"There are national benefits."
In November, he gave a lecture on "Some Unsolved Mysteries of Astronomy" at Shandong University.
"The following morning, he held a discussion with faculty and students from the SDU-ANU Joint Science College and the School of Space Science and Technology," the Chinese university reported on its website.
"Professor Schmidt shared personal insights and encouraged students to use science to address global challenges, such as climate change."
He said he visited many Chinese universities and didn't know if he would visit Shandong again.
The ANU only received the order to halt the joint venture from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, last week. "The University will be acting on this decision in line with our obligations under Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020," the ANU said.
"ANU takes its obligations seriously and is fully committed to compliance with government policy and regulation."
It is not clear what now happens, particularly to any students enrolled in the college or academics teaching them.
When the first students from Shandong arrived on the Canberra campus in 2022, the ANU reported that they seemed pleased. It quoted one of them at the time saying: "The academic rigor of ANU and the calm and peaceful ANU campus makes it an ideal place for international students like me to pursue my goal of becoming a scientist.
"Lecturers are all extremely friendly and passionate, and provided all the support I needed to settle in an English-speaking classroom for the first time."
