Decision of the ULB Academic Council on collaborations with the Seven Sons of National Defence universities (China)

Published on July 25, 2025 – Updated on July 25, 2025

At its 5 May 2025 session, the ULB Academic Council decided to suspend its institutional partnerships with Beihang University and to rule out any new institutional partnerships with the Seven Sons of National Defence universities. This decision does not affect individual academic relationships with colleagues at the universities in question.

The Respect for International Law and Dual Use Committee was asked to examine firstly a plan to sign a new institutional agreement between ULB and the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), and secondly the renewal of a MoU with Beihang University. As well as these specific investigations, the committee also looked more broadly at the Seven Sons of National Defence group, to which both these universities belong. The risks identified by the committee apply to all these seven universities, which are administered directly by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), rather than the Ministry of Education, which oversees other universities.
The Seven Sons of National Defence group consists of the following seven universities:

Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Nanjing
Beihang University in Beijing
Beijing Institute of Technology in Beijing
Harbin Engineering University in Harbin
Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin
Nanjing University of Science and Technology in Nanjing
Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an

At its 5 May 2025 session, the ULB Academic Council decided to follow the Committee's recommendations and suspend its institutional partnerships with Beihang University and to rule out any new institutional partnerships with the Seven Sons of National Defence universities.

The main arguments on which the Academic Council's decision was based were:

The total opacity with which the Seven Sons of National Defence operate and the extent of their military research classified as state secrets, making risk management difficult or even impossible;
The undesirability of sensitive technologies being transferred to universities that work directly with the Chinese armed forces and government, as these technologies could be used for actions against international law and/or breaches of fundamental rights;
The even greater risks in the current geopolitical context, in which the European Union intends to increase funding for military and dual-use research;
The reputational risk for ULB of associating with these universities.

If you are involved in a partnership with any of these universities, please approach our contact person for the Respect for International Law and Dual Use Committee.