China waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed at a UK university to get it to shut down sensitive research into alleged human rights abuses, documents seen by the BBC show.
Sheffield Hallam University staff in China were threatened by individuals described by them as being from China's National Security Service who demanded the research being done in Sheffield be halted.
And access to the university's websites from China was blocked, impeding its ability to recruit Chinese students, in a campaign of threats and intimidation lasting more than two years.
In an internal email from July 2024, university officials said attempting to retain the business in China and publication of the research are now untenable bedfellows.
When the UK government learned of the case, the then Foreign Secretary David Lammy issued a warning to his Chinese counterpart that it would not tolerate attempts to suppress academic freedoms at UK universities, the BBC understands.
The issue was also raised with China's most senior education minister.
China was seeking to halt research by Laura Murphy, professor of human rights and contemporary slavery at Sheffield Hallam, into allegations Uyghur Muslims in the north-western region of Xinjiang were subject to forced labour.
China has faced accusations – always firmly denied – that it has committed crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population.
In late 2024, following pressure from the Chinese state and a separate defamation lawsuit against the university, Sheffield Hallam decided not to publish a final piece of research by Prof Murphy and her team into forced labour.
And in early 2025, university administrators told her that she could not continue with her research into supply chains and forced labour in China.
She initiated legal action against the university for failing in its duty to protect her academic freedom and she submitted a subject access request demanding Sheffield Hallam hand over any relevant internal documents.
The documents she obtained showed the university had negotiated directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market, she told the BBC.
She added: I'd never seen anything quite so patently explicit about the extent to which a university would go to ensure that they have Chinese student income.
Sheffield Hallam has now apologized to Prof Murphy and said she can resume her work.
A spokesperson said the university's decision to not continue with Professor Laura Murphy's research was taken based on our understanding of a complex set of circumstances at the time, including being unable to secure the necessary professional indemnity insurance.
They said the university wished to make clear our commitment to supporting her research and to securing and promoting freedom of speech and academic freedom within the law.
But the general secretary of the University and College Union, Jo Grady, said it is incredibly worrying that Sheffield Hallam appears to have attempted to silence its own professor on behalf of a foreign government.
A government spokesperson told the BBC any attempt by a foreign state to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK will not be tolerated, and the government has made this clear to Beijing after learning of this case.
