The chairman of a top British university failed to declare a role advising the pro-Beijing leader of Hong Kong.
Victor Chu, a senior businessman born in China, is chair of council at University College London (UCL) and oversees the institution’s leadership and strategic direction.
Mr Chu is also a member of a “high-level advisory body” to John Lee, the chief executive of Hong Kong criticised for repressing pro-democracy campaigners on behalf of Beijing.
The role at the Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers (CECA) was not disclosed on UCL’s register of interests.
Prof Michelle Shipworth, an academic at the university who last year accused it of silencing her over criticism of China, said: “I was deeply disturbed when I discovered that the head of UCL sits on the Hong Kong government’s Council of Advisers.
“This is a regime that criminalises dissent, even from overseas. UCL’s many Chinese and Hong Kong students are especially at risk. His role is impossible to square with UCL’s duty to protect them and uphold free speech.”
It comes amid widespread concerns about Chinese influence at British universities and the Government’s failure to act on the issue.
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UCL currently has around 1,300 students from Hong Kong – the largest number of any university in Britain. It is also home to the highest number of Chinese students at a UK university, with around 13,500 enrolled last year – making up around a quarter of its students.
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Mr Chu, who lives in Hong Kong, became UCL’s chairman in 2019.
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He was appointed to the CECA in 2023, the same year it was established to act as a “high-level advisory body” to Mr Lee.
Although his UCL register of interests includes 48 other positions, the CECA role is not mentioned.
All UCL council members are required to declare any potential conflicts of interest, and senior staff must not “put themselves under any obligation, financial or otherwise, to other individuals or organisations that might seek to influence them in the performance of their duties”.
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Prof Shipworth said that his failure to disclose the CECA position “could be perceived as insufficiently robust to [Chinese] pressures” given the “increasingly illiberal and punitive nature” of the region’s leadership.
Mr Lee is widely regarded as pro-Beijing and has pushed Hong Kong closer to Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, since taking office in 2022.
A former senior police officer, his tenure as the territory’s secretary of security included the implementation of a highly controversial national security law in the city in 2020.
This handed China sweeping powers over Hong Kong and effectively banned pro-democracy protests in the territory. It has also been used to jail government critics, including Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Mr Lee beefed up the legislation after becoming Hong Kong leader, introducing a new security law last year called Article 23, which allows for closed-door trials and hands the police the right to detain suspects for up to 16 days without charge.
Critics have warned it will further erode civil liberties in Hong Kong, with Human Rights Watch, a global campaign group, saying the measures would push the region “into a new era of authoritarianism”.
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Academics told The Telegraph they were concerned about Mr Chu’s undeclared role following allegations that UCL has stepped up efforts to woo China in recent years in order to cement a vital revenue stream.
Mr Chu hired Michael Spence as Provost of UCL in 2020, and the pair have since launched a major push to deepen ties with China.
The number of Chinese students at the university has more than doubled under their watch, and now makes up half of its foreign students – up from less than a third in 2019.
The Telegraph has seen multiple videos posted online by UCL of Dr Spence speaking in Mandarin, alongside offers of a “video chat with the provost” for pupils thinking of applying to the London university.
Dr Spence was previously the vice-chancellor at the University of Sydney from 2008 to 2020, where he faced criticism for his stance on China.
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