The China-Australia partnership in terms of research and development has solidified amid the COVID-19 crisis.
The evolving China-Australia partnership
The US is getting worried over losing grip as Australia’s top partner in research as the China-Australia partnership is slowly overtaking them.
The pandemic caused a lot of revenue loss to Australia’s Universities. The vast recalling of almost every international student from foreign schools led to huge revenue losses from various educational institutions. Australia is one of the top destinations for international students. But with the pandemic going on, universities are expecting major setbacks from having fewer enrollees for the coming school year.
To consolidate the funding needed to continuously operate, universities are looking for funding via research partnerships from other countries. The United States is one of the top partners of Australia when it comes to research, but with the pandemic hitting the US very hard, funds for research investments in other countries has been redirected by the US government.
As other countries focus on dealing with the COVID-19 in their areas, China, who has successfully controlled the spread of the virus in their country, is starting to find reasonable investments to fuel back its economy. And a China-Australia partnership in research and development seems to be a good fit for them.
As of now, the China-Australia partnership is the most funded and vast research investment in Australia, with increasing numbers of research publications being patented with the China-Australia partnership.
Research and development by China in Australia are focused on material science, energy science, and chemical engineering.
Alarming for the government
As universities rejoice over international funding going in their way, the Australian government is asking education administrators to be wary of possible intellectual sabotage or leak of vital information crucial to national security.
According to the International Cyber Policy Centre, the need for funding due to the pandemic might cause universities to allow foreign intervention go beyond the limits that might be a risk to national security.
The government is in strict monitoring with foreign collaborations with Australian universities.
