During the interview with Catherine Philp from The Times on July 16, Ambassador Liu Xiaoming responded to the accusation by the Foreign Affairs Committee that the Chinese Embassy is “trying to interfere in the academic freedom in British universities”. He pointed out that it is not interfering in the academic freedom to encourage overseas Chinese students to study hard and to use what they learn to serve their country.

Ambassador Liu said, since the UK received the first group of Chinese students as early as in 1972, his predecessors, including the first ambassador, have encouraged Chinese students in the UK to study hard and to use what they learn to serve their country. “Many of these students now occupy very important positions in China, including senior politicians, diplomats and chief scientists. They are also working for better collaboration and partnership between China and the UK,” said the Ambassador.

There are 200,000 Chinese students studying in the UK now. They represent the future of China and the future of China-UK relations. “We encourage them to use what they learn to serve their country. Is that any problem? What if your ambassador working in China visited a university and gave a speech saying to your students that ‘you should study hard and serve your country’?”, asked the Ambassador, adding that calling this interference in academic freedom is totally absurd and only exposes the Cold War mentality of those people.