Reports surfaced last week that a university in the United Kingdom shut down human rights research being conducted by a professor in response to pressure from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. Experts say universities should cut all ties with the communist regime despite the financial pain to maintain academic freedom.

According to a report from the BBC, Sheffield Hallam University torpedoed research into the CCP subjecting Uyghur Muslims into forced labor, which was being conducted by Laura Murphy, a professor of human rights and contemporary slavery. Internal emails from Sheffield show that the university wanted to maintain a business relationship with the communist country in order to retain a funding stream from incoming Chinese students, but CCP officials demanded that the university halt research into its potential human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims.

In an email from July 2024, university officials stated that “attempting to retain the business in China and publication of the research are now untenable bedfellows.” The email came after Sheffield staff in China were reportedly “threatened by individuals described by them as being from China’s National Security Service who demanded the research being done in Sheffield be halted.” The regime went on to block access to the university’s websites as part of “a campaign of threats and intimidation lasting more than two years.”

Eventually, in late 2024, Sheffield halted the publication of research into forced labor conducted by Murphy. A few months later, the university told her “not to continue with her research into supply chains and forced labour in China.”

Severe human rights violations against the ethnic, majority Muslim Uyghur population in the Xinjiang province of northwest China have been documented since at least 2014, when the government began a campaign of mass detention and “reeducation” after terrorist attacks occurred in the region. Estimates say at least 1.8 million Uyghurs are forcibly detained in reeducation camps, where they are tortured, “forced to abandon their religious and cultural practices, and indoctrinated with CCP propaganda.” Reports also say that women in the camps are subject to an “[organized] system of mass rape, sexual abuse and torture,” and detainees are also forced to undergo medical experiments, abortion, and sterilization. Uyghurs are also reportedly targeted for execution in order for their organs to be harvested.

In addition, as Murphy’s research has revealed, Uyghurs have also been subject to an extensive system of forced labor, including for the solar panel industry, car parts, clothing, and much more. One report linked 83 major brands with products produced by Uyghur forced labor, including Abercrombie & Fitch, adidas, Amazon, Apple, BMW, Esprit, Fila, Gap, H&M, Inditex, Marks & Spencer, Nike, North Face, Puma, PVH, Samsung, and UNIQLO.

After the situation at Sheffield came to light, university officials reportedly apologized to Murphy and informed her that she can resume her work. But U.K. academic experts like Jo Grady, who serves as general secretary of the university and college union, say it’s “incredibly worrying that Sheffield Hallam appears to have attempted to silence its own professor on behalf of a foreign government.” She went on to argue that the university needs to establish “how it will ensure its academics will be supported to research freely and protected from overreach by foreign powers.”

Reports from the U.S. suggest that it’s not just academia in the U.K. that the CCP is attempting to infiltrate. In May, it was discovered that CCP spies had embedded themselves within Stanford University in California, where they “pressure[d] or coerce[d] Chinese nationals studying at Stanford to collect and report sensitive information,” including “research projects, methodologies, software, lab workflows, collaborative structures, and even communication channels.” Lawmakers like Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) are warning university presidents that the U.S. student visa system “has become a Trojan horse for Beijing, providing unrestricted access to our top research institutions and posing a direct threat to our national security.” There are currently over 277,000 Chinese students in the United States, according to the Institute of International Education.

Author and China expert Gordon Chang, who serves as a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute, warns that academic institutions should not risk associating with the CCP due to its lack of ethical and moral principles.

“China’s Communist Party cajoles, entices, or persuades to get what it wants, and when that does not work, it pressures, intimidates, or coerces,” he told The Washington Stand. “The CCP uses every point of contact to do this. The Chinese call this ‘unrestricted warfare.’”

“The only way to stop the CCP is to sever its contacts with us. Does that sound extreme? Yes, it is, but Sheffield Hallam University capitulated to the Communist Party, and few universities can stand up to China these days in a sustained fight,” Chang added. “Unfortunately, there is no middle ground when dealing with a militant regime that will stop at almost nothing to rule the world and the near parts of the solar system.”