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Academics at Imperial College London have worked with scientists at Chinese institutions linked to Beijing’s armed forces and defence sector on research with potential military applications.
Since the beginning of 2023, academics at the world-leading British university have been named as co-authors on at least five studies with figures from Chinese organisations at the heart of China’s military-industrial complex.
The organisations included China’s Army Military Transportation University, Harbin Institute of Technology and the research institute of Chinese military supplier Shougang Group.
Academic co-operation that could strengthen the People’s Liberation Army has become an increasingly sensitive political issue in the UK. In 2022, Imperial faced intense scrutiny over its joint research with Chinese institutions and has closed four laboratories that were linked to Chinese defence companies. Read more about the academic co-operation.
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Chinese economy: China will target economic growth of about 5 per cent this year, a goal described as “ambitious” by analysts, as the world’s second-largest economy battles challenges ranging from a property slowdown to weak investor confidence.
Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:
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Bank of England: The UK’s central bank publishes data on the country’s holdings of international reserves and foreign currency liquidity.
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US Federal Reserve: Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice-chair for supervision, speaks at the National Interagency Community Reinvestment Conference in Portland, Oregon.
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Economic data: S&P Global releases services purchasing managers’ indices for the UK, the US, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. South Africa reports fourth-quarter gross domestic product.
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US elections: More than a dozen states, including California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas and Vermont, hold presidential primaries in what is known as Super Tuesday.
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Results: Ashtead, Bayer, Foxtons, Greggs, IWG, Ross Stores, Target, Thales and Travis Perkins report.
Follow the latest twists and turns of the US presidential campaign in the FT’s US Election Countdown newsletter. Sign up here.
Five more top stories
1. UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to give motorists a £5bn pre-election tax break in the Budget when he extends for another year a “temporary” 5p-a-litre fuel duty cut and again scraps an inflation-linked rise in the levy, according to government insiders. While that move would be welcomed, some believe Hunt will unveil a bigger prize in his Budget tomorrow: a headline-grabbing 2p cut in the basic rate of income tax.
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UK Budget dilemma: Jeremy Hunt insists that doing the right thing for the economy is also good politics. Finding the sweet spot between playing it safe and being bold will be a huge test for the chancellor.
2. A UN report has found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Hamas committed rape and sexual violence against Israelis during its October 7 attacks. Pramila Patten, the UN’s special envoy on sexual violence, said in a report released yesterday that there were also grounds to believe “rape and sexualised torture” was committed against hostages taken during the raid and may be continuing against some of those still held by the militant group in the Gaza Strip. Read more on the report’s conclusions.
3. Hawkish policymakers at the European Central Bank have been emboldened to resist calls for an imminent cut to interest rates at their meeting this week after inflation proved stickier than expected in February. Inflation fell less than expected from 2.8 per cent in January to 2.6 per cent in February, and economists have pointed to persistently high services inflation, which recorded 3.9 per cent last month, as the key factor making rate-setters nervous about cutting rates too soon.
4. Fiscally conservative EU states are pushing back at a European Commission plan to boost common funding for defence, raising doubts over the drive to rapidly expand the region’s industrial capacity. Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, has drawn up a detailed strategy that encourages joint procurement among EU countries, with Brussels subsidising weapons deemed to be strategically vital. Here’s more on the plan that one senior diplomat called a “power grab” by the commission.
5. Microsoft has accused The New York Times of “doomsday futurology” for predicting that artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT could ruin the news business. In a motion filed to a Manhattan court, Microsoft, which has committed $13bn to ChatGPT creator OpenAI, seeks to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses the technology companies of unlawfully copying millions of articles to build the program.
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More tech: Four former Twitter executives, including former chief Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk for more than $128mn in severance pay that they allege Musk withheld from them when he bought the social media site.
The Big Read
For years, the European Commission has wondered how to prevent the largest online platforms — defined as “gatekeepers” — from using their market dominance to crush rivals and build monopolies. After a decade of antitrust action, Brussels is pinning its hopes on the Digital Markets Act — a sweeping set of rules that, on paper, challenges the core business practices of Big Tech companies. But critics say there is little evidence yet to suggest that the law is having the desired effect.
We’re also reading and listening to . . .
Chart of the day
Last November, the $1.6tn Norwegian sovereign wealth fund asked the government if it could be allowed to invest in private equity, proposing to move gradually to a 3 to 5 per cent allocation. But to make the effort worthwhile, Norges Bank Investment Management, which runs the fund, would probably over time target a 10 per cent allocation. At its current size, that would mean $160bn, equal to the entire private equity arms of Blackstone, KKR or Carlyle. FT Alphaville examines the case for investing in the finance industry’s hottest asset class.
Take a break from the news
From Christian Dior’s 1950s ball gowns to 1990s Versace numbers, many stylists to Hollywood A-listers have increasingly turned to archive or custom-made pieces instead of only using the latest looks to fulfil the demand and prestige of clients gracing the glamorous red carpet of this year’s Oscars.
Additional contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm
