Summary:
A new report from the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), published on 24 August 2026 by Air University, United States Air Force, maps open-source contact between China’s Defence Science and Technology Key Laboratories and universities, companies and research bodies worldwide. The study catalogues 713 recorded interactions across 66 Chinese defence laboratories and 426 foreign institutions from about 2015 to 2025. Those figures are global, covering Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania. The unit of analysis is 131 discrete instances of contact or cooperation.
Some of the recorded collaborations and visits involve work on anti-ship missile routing, electrothermal guns, military-aircraft materials, cognitive radar, unmanned-aircraft swarm detection, hydroacoustics, helicopter rotors, flight control and nuclear-adjacent materials. Many of the longer-term partnerships are claimed on Chinese laboratory websites. CASI could not confirm which arrangements still operate.
This cable focuses on the Five Eyes partners — Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand — which appear in the dataset with particular volume and intensity. Australia holds the highest country concentration score. CASI does not allege wrongdoing by any foreign researcher or institution.
Detailed Report
1. Inside the CASI Map of PRC Military Research Links
The China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), based at Air University, United States Air Force, released its open-source assessment of foreign contacts with the PRC Defence Science and Technology Key Laboratory (DSTKL) system on 24 August 2026. DSTKLs are China’s top tier of military research infrastructure. Many have been renamed National Key Laboratories in English-language materials, often omitting the word defence from translated names. CASI relied on Chinese-language sources to trace military lineage.
The dataset spans approximately 2015 to 2025 and identifies 131 discrete instances of contact or cooperation, involving 66 Chinese defence laboratories and 426 foreign institutions, with 713 recorded interactions. One instance may cover multiple years and events. The 713 figure is global, including universities and research bodies in Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania, with notable representation from Italy, Singapore, France and Germany.
Of the 131 instances, 49 percent involve academic conferences. The remainder are distributed among institutional collaborations, visits or exchanges, individual affiliations and research collaborations.
CASI calculated country concentration scores — interactions relative to the size of each country’s research sector — as follows: Australia 1.00, United Kingdom 0.97, Italy 0.87, Singapore 0.86, Canada 0.68, France 0.44, Germany 0.42, United States 0.19. These scores reflect intensity of contact, not culpability. The United States, despite a lower concentration score, has the largest raw count of named institutions.
CASI’s analysis is based exclusively on open sources: Chinese laboratory websites, university pages, conference programmes and official biographies. The authors state they do not assume intentional wrongdoing by any foreign researcher or institution, and acknowledge the dataset is incomplete by design.
2. Military Labs Behind Civil-Sounding Names
Many defence laboratories adopt civil-sounding English names, removing “defence” from the translated title while keeping a military function. That allows them to appear in international venues without an obvious military marker.
The same laboratories often sit inside universities known as the Seven Sons of National Defense — Chinese campuses built around People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and defence-industry research — or inside state-owned groups in aviation, shipbuilding, electronics, missiles and nuclear weapons. CASI notes that participants may not have recognised the military character of the host.
3. Australia: Missile Routing, Radar and Military-Aircraft Materials
Australia holds the highest country concentration score in the dataset (1.00). The recorded work includes command-and-control and anti-ship missile routing, military-aircraft aerodynamics, radar antennas, communications anti-jamming and composite materials for space vehicles and military aircraft.
University of Western Australia
• A researcher affiliated with UWA was also affiliated with the information-systems engineering laboratory run by China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) — the PLA’s principal science and engineering university — and the 28th Research Institute of the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), a command-and-control and communications laboratory. Both parent organisations are on the US Commerce Department Entity List, a trade-restriction list for foreign entities Washington ties to military modernisation or proliferation.
• The same researcher published on route-planning algorithms for anti-ship missiles and on the controllability of complex networks.
University of Sydney
• Claimed joint research bases with Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU), a Seven Son aerospace and defence-engineering campus, at its airfoil and blading aerodynamics laboratory (military-aircraft aerodynamics), 2007–2016, also naming Swinburne.
• Claimed cooperative relationship with a CETC / Xidian radar-antenna laboratory.
• Claimed joint graduate-student training with a communications anti-jamming laboratory, alongside Glasgow, Toronto, Princeton and Columbia.
• Claimed long-term exchange with Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) composite-materials institute, which works on materials for space vehicles and military aircraft. HIT is a Seven Son university and is on the US Entity List.
Swinburne University of Technology
• Named on the same NWPU aerodynamics joint-research-base claim as Sydney.
University of Technology Sydney
• Named on the CETC radar-antenna cooperative-relationship list.
• Committee member at an explicitly military defence-technology conference.
UNSW / UNSW Canberra
• UNSW Canberra listed as a committee member at the same defence-technology conference.
• UNSW recorded lecturing on unmanned-aircraft navigation at that event.
Australian National University
• Recorded at a 2024 unmanned-systems conference co-organised with a UAV special-technology laboratory and PLA / China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) entities, alongside Cranfield, Cambridge, Lancaster and Loughborough.
The University of Melbourne and the University of Wollongong are named in the Australian set. The paper does not attach them to a described joint laboratory in the same way as the campuses above.
CASI cannot confirm that the claimed joint bases and training arrangements are still active. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has separately assessed that espionage and foreign interference are at extreme levels and that foreign services are targeting science and technology. That assessment is distinct from the CASI report.
4. United Kingdom: Munitions, Aero-Engines and a Nuclear Tour
The United Kingdom has a concentration score of 0.97, second in the dataset. The recorded work includes munitions and electrothermal guns, helicopter rotors, military-aircraft materials, hydroacoustics, aero-engines, unmanned aircraft, space-flight control and a visit to a nuclear-weapons laboratory.
Imperial College London and QinetiQ
• In 2016 the ballistics laboratory at China’s Nanjing University of Science and Technology, a Seven Son munitions campus on the US Entity List, hosted an expert from Imperial College and QinetiQ. The lecture covered electrothermal-chemical and electrothermal ignition guns. The speaker’s field includes artillery ballistics, propellants and electromagnetic rail guns.
• Imperial also co-chaired an explicitly military defence-technology conference, and appears at a 2019 propellants and explosives symposium and a 2021 symposium co-organised by a hypersonic-ramjet laboratory.
University of Glasgow and University of Nottingham
• The helicopter-rotor dynamics laboratory under China’s Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Seven Son aviation campus, and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) 602nd Research Institute claims a joint helicopter-technology centre with Glasgow and a helicopter-configuration centre with Nottingham.
University of Manchester
• Research collaboration, dated from 2014, with an Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC)-linked composites laboratory on new materials for Chinese military aircraft.
University of Southampton
• 2019 research collaboration on hydroacoustics with a laboratory at Harbin Engineering University (HEU), a Chinese naval and underwater-systems university.
University of Oxford
• Named on claimed cooperation lists attached to Beihang University, China’s leading aerospace university in Beijing, and to Northwestern Polytechnical University’s airfoil laboratory.
Queen Mary University of London
• In 2024 a student group from Queen Mary’s campus at Northwestern Polytechnical University visited a laboratory of the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP), which oversees China’s nuclear-weapons programme and is on the US Entity List. CASI describes the visit as a patriotic field trip to learn about and be inspired by that programme.
Kingston University
• A laboratory at the PLA Air Force Engineering University, an officer-engineering campus, claims a long-term cooperative relationship with Kingston on unmanned aircraft.
Sino-British Joint Laboratory of Advanced Control System Technology
• Personnel of a China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) space-flight intelligent-control laboratory are listed as affiliated with it.
University of Bristol, Southampton, Strathclyde and Brighton
• Personnel of a National University of Defense Technology equipment-support laboratory studied at Bristol, Southampton and Strathclyde.
• Bristol lectured in 2023 at Harbin Institute of Technology’s applied-mechanics centre, which is tied to the military-aircraft and space-vehicle composites laboratory.
• A Brighton researcher served as a visiting scholar at a remanufacturing defence laboratory in 2016.
CASI cannot confirm that the claimed joint centres and cooperation lists are still active. In February 2026 the director-general of MI5 briefed leaders from more than 70 British universities on foreign interference, including attempts to shape research. That briefing is distinct from the CASI report.
5. United States: Flight Control, Cognitive Radar and Swarm Detection
The United States has the largest raw count of named institutions and the lowest Five Eyes concentration score (0.19). The recorded work includes flight control, cognitive radar and unmanned-aircraft swarm detection, armoured-vehicle transmissions, shipboard electrical power, underwater information systems and claimed graduate pipelines into elite campuses.
Honeywell
• In 2018 Honeywell and the Xi’an Flight Automatic Control Research Institute of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) formed HonFei, a flight-control company.
Syracuse University
• A radar-signal-processing laboratory established a 111 Plan innovation base for cognitive radar detection and imaging, including a joint centre with Syracuse, the International Center for Information Fusion. The 111 Plan is a Chinese state talent programme whose published aims include attracting foreign specialists and moving work between civil and military uses. Syracuse described applications in health, the environment and security. The Chinese side lists unmanned-aircraft swarm detection among the base’s topics.
Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, MIT and Caltech
• Harbin Institute of Technology’s composites institute claimed an overseas joint laboratory with Harvard and long-term cooperation with Stanford and Northwestern.
• A micro-fabrication laboratory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Peking University claims it can recommend graduate students to Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford or the California Institute of Technology. CASI could not confirm those pipelines.
University of Virginia
• Recorded as operating a joint rotating-machinery laboratory with the Beijing Institute of Technology, a Seven Son campus, in material on a 2019 conference co-organised by a Norinco / Beijing Institute of Technology laboratory that works on armoured-vehicle transmissions.
US-funded lecture at a CETC radar laboratory
• In 2019 a professor funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Army Research Laboratory lectured at a China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) radar-antenna laboratory.
MIT, Berkeley and other campuses on relationship lists
• The CETC radar-antenna laboratory’s claimed cooperative-relationship list also names MIT, UC Berkeley, Texas, Ohio State, Pennsylvania and Houston.
• A Harbin Engineering University underwater-acoustics college claimed an undergraduate exchange with MIT. Harbin Engineering University was placed on a US export-control list in 2020.
• Princeton and Columbia are named on the anti-jamming laboratory’s claimed graduate-training list.
George Mason University, University of North Carolina and UC Merced
• Researchers from George Mason and the University of North Carolina are recorded in discussions and a lecture at a China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) / Northwestern Polytechnical University laboratory focused on underwater information systems.
• In 2015 staff from CSSC’s 712th Research Institute, which oversees shipboard electrical power for new propulsion, sensors and weapons, visited UC Merced to discuss possible cooperation. The paper records a visit, not a completed joint laboratory.
CASI cannot confirm that the claimed training pipelines and relationship lists are still active.
6. Canada: Anti-Jamming, Radar Antennas and Space-Flight Visits
Canada’s concentration score is 0.68. The paper names Canadian campuses mainly on multi-institution claimed lists for anti-jamming training, radar-antenna cooperation and space-flight visits, rather than on a described joint centre.
University of Toronto and University of Waterloo
• Named on the communications anti-jamming laboratory’s claimed joint graduate-student training list, alongside Sydney, Glasgow, Princeton and Columbia.
University of Ottawa and University of Toronto
• Named on the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) radar-antenna laboratory’s claimed cooperative-relationship list.
University of Toronto and York University
• Recorded on space-flight dynamics visits with the PLA Beijing Aerospace Control Center and Northwestern Polytechnical University.
The paper does not describe a Canadian joint centre with the same specificity as Honeywell–AVIC or the Western Australian dual affiliation. CASI cannot confirm that the claimed lists are still active.
7. New Zealand: A Radar Claim and a Nuclear-Materials Conference
New Zealand is the thinnest Five Eyes presence in the dataset. The recorded work is a claimed radar-antenna relationship and attendance at a conference co-organised with a nuclear-materials laboratory. Otago and Waikato appear at conference level only.
Massey University
• Named on the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) radar-antenna laboratory’s claimed cooperative-relationship list.
Royal Academy of Engineering
• Recorded at a 2016 surface-engineering conference co-organised by a China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) nuclear-materials laboratory. CAEP oversees China’s nuclear-weapons programme and is on the US Entity List.
University of Otago and University of Waikato
• Each appears once in the institution index, at conference level.
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service said in its 2026 threat assessment that several states spy on New Zealand and that China is the only country it has detected doing so at scale. That finding is distinct from the CASI report.
8. Western Specialists at China Military-Industry Events
CASI does not treat a conference badge as technology transfer. It does record gatherings in which the military purpose is stated or hard to miss.
The International Conference on Defence Technology has been held every two years since 2018. It is organised by three defence key laboratories together with Norinco, the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) and two Seven Son campuses, with participation from China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) and the PLA army and naval engineering universities. The organisers say the aim is to advance China’s defence industry. An Imperial College professor co-chaired it. Lectures recorded in the study include armour-piercing ammunition, armour design, energetic ingredients for solid rocket motors, explosive mixtures and navigation for surveillance unmanned aircraft. The University of Technology Sydney and UNSW Canberra sat on the 2024 committee.
A 2022 propulsion forum in Zurich was sponsored by at least one Chinese defence laboratory that had dropped the word defence from its English name, together with the Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). The public materials described cleaner civil aircraft engines. Airbus, General Electric, Safran and Pratt & Whitney were among the Western organisations present. CASI notes that more efficient engines serve military programmes as well as airliners.
Guidance, navigation and control conferences in 2022 and 2024 were organised by PLA-affiliated entities including NUDT and Harbin Engineering University. The rooms were filled by Seven Sons and groups such as the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), Norinco, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). The named foreign presenter in 2022 came from Loughborough University; in 2024 from France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. CASI says it cannot prove each of those events was designed as a transfer operation.
A 2021 thermal-fluid symposium was co-organised by the hypersonic-ramjet laboratory and drew Imperial, Oxford, Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield Hallam. A 2019 autumn symposium on propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics was co-organised with CAEP, CASC, Norinco and the China Ordnance Society. Imperial is on that foreign list.
9. What the China Military Lab Study Does Not Prove
The paper does not establish that the claimed joint bases and training agreements are still running. Many of the Chinese pages are undated or old. It does not establish that any named Five Eyes university conducted a classified weapons programme with the PLA. It does not treat a name on a conference programme as evidence that technology moved.
The study is open source only. Civil English titles and civil event branding mean some of the people in the room may not have seen the military parent of the laboratory that sent the invitation.
Conclusion
CASI has mapped open-source contact between China’s premier military laboratories and Western research institutions. The contacts that sit inside laboratories whose published work is radar, munitions, aero-engines, helicopters, command-and-control and nuclear weapons are the part of that map that should concern university boards and governments. Australia and Britain are dense on that part of the map. The authors cannot say which of those claims are still live. That uncertainty is part of the finding.