Conversations in Chinese echo though the corridors of LUT University's Lahti campus as the autumn term's new bachelor's students pour out of their lecture halls.

Most of LUT's Lahti campus undergraduate students, and about half of the teachers, come from China. The bachelor's programmes that started this autumn are also the first to be implemented in Lahti. The programmes are jointly offered by Finland's LUT University and the Hebei University of Technology HEBUT. When the students complete their studies, they will receive a diploma from both universities.

This cooperation has generated a lot of excitement on the Lahti campus.

"We just had a Teams meeting with our Chinese partners. The venture has got off to a really good start," says Janne Hokkanen, Strategy Director at LUT University.

At the same time, a good hard look is being taken across Europe at the risks and threats involved in university and research collaboration with Chinese partners and how these potential issues can be tackled. Various projects are under way in the EU to ensure safer cooperation, and the first EU-wide recommendations are scheduled to be published within a matter of days.

In Finland, too, guidelines are being drawn up for universities. According to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo), the level of risk related to China has increased here as well.

Cooperation offers cannot be ignored

China is becoming -- if it is not already -- the world leader in a number of scientific disciplines. Offers of collaboration cannot be ignored if an institution wants to stay at the cutting edge.

This is why Finland is also preparing its own guidelines for the university and science community. These are being drawn up by the Ministry of Education and Culture in co-operation with universities and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The paper is being finalised with a publication target date in December.

The aim of the guidelines is to raise awareness of the potential challenges related to cooperation with China, says Mari-Anna Suurmunne, a senior specialist in education and science at Finland's Embassy in Beijing.

"The starting point is better and more informed cooperation," she explains, adding that it has to be borne in mind that China's social system and values differ from those in Europe.

Competition for the top spot in the world of science may take place under a different set of rules.

Supo: Research must not fall into the wrong hands

All the higher education experts interviewed by Yle for this article phrase their responses diplomatically when it comes to assessing the risks associated with cooperation with Chinese partners. There seems to be an air of concern that speaking bluntly could fracture the good relations between the Finnish and Chinese worlds of higher education.

Interviews with Yle did not reveal any problems with Chinese students, researchers or teachers at Finnish universities. However, there have been cases of suspected espionage elsewhere in Europe, and in the United States.

According to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service the risk is also real in Finland.

"Authoritarian states are increasingly prepared to use a wide range of means to achieve their own goals. In the pursuit of national strategic interests, the battle for technologies is especially emphasised," says Supo communications specialist Aishi Zidan.

Supo points out that Finland conducts a lot of research related to the development of the kind of high technology which, if it were to fall into the wrong hands, would be detrimental to the nation's scientific and economic interests.

"The Chinese government typically funds research activities that benefit its long-term strategic goals. Together, these development expenditures have also increased the risks associated with research collaboration," Zidan notes.

Should students see their Chinese classmates as potential spies?

"Of course not. International cooperation is useful and important in many ways in the world of research and higher education. This also applies to cooperation with China," Supo's Zidan replies.

A power in the world of science

China is aiming to become the world leader in sciences by the middle of the century. The country has invested increasing amounts in research and education in recent years, and this is clearly evident.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Education , the country spent 1,346.4 billion yuan on higher education in 2019. According to the exchange rate at that time, the sum totalled 170 billion euros. By comparison, Finland's entire state budget that year was 55.5 billion.

China's ranking has taken great strides in international university comparisons. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings currently classes six universities from mainland China or Hong Kong among the top 100. The figure doubled in a single year. The highest placing by a Finnish institution of higher education was for the University of Helsinki, ranked 101st.

The number of Chinese scientific publications and citations of Chinese scholars is also growing rapidly.

In 2019, a total of almost 200,000 Chinese students completed lower or upper university studies in the EU. During that same year, there were about 15,000 Chinese doctoral students at EU universities, or just over 20 percent of all international doctoral students.

This academic year, 25 percent of the foreign students enrolled at LUT University will come from China. Chinese students are also the largest single group of international students at the universities of Helsinki and Turku, for example.

Academic freedom not compromised

There is not much concern about the risk of espionage at LUT University, at least with regard to HEBUT cooperation, as this involves bachelor's degree studies, not sensitive advanced research.

However, according to LUT's Janne Hokkanen, every researcher and teacher needs to understand that China can have ulterior motives.

"The Chinese state works differently than we do. It seems that people there often put the interests of the state ahead of their own," he says. "Care must be taken as to what files are accessible to outsiders. However, this applies to everyone, not just the Chinese."

Hokkanen considers disagreements related to research ethics, such as the countries' different perceptions of academic freedom, to be a more realistic risk than espionage.

"Of course, our starting point is that academic freedom is upheld. And, it has not been a problem," Hokkanen says.