From now on, Oxford's Wykeham chair of physics will officially be known as the Tencent-Wykeham chair in honor of the Chinese Tencent corporate conglomerate, which owns China's WeChat messaging app.
Tencent reportedly gave £700,000, or about $968,000, to Oxford in exchange for Oxford public recognizing the partnership.
First established in 1900, the Wykeham chair of physics comes with a fellowship at 14th-century New College. Under its new designation, the Tencent-Wykeham fellowship will pay new homage to its Chinese overlords.
When asked about the new name, Lord Patten, Oxford's Chancellor and the last British governor of Hong Kong, said he did not even know about it until he was contacted by the Daily Mail.
"I'm strongly in favour of the proposal to do a comprehensive survey of relationships between China and all our universities," Patten said.
"Given that China has become a surveillance state, is probably guilty of genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and is snuffing out freedom in Hong Kong, we should be looking at these relationships very beadily."
Communist China wants to own the world
Patten added that he has "no doubt" communist China represents "a threat to liberal democracies all round the world." This includes companies like Tencent, which CIA sources say was bankrolled by the Ministry of State Security, China's main intelligence agency.
According to the Pentagon, Tencent is also working on artificial intelligence (AI) programs with Chinese security agencies.
Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring WeChat to be a security threat because it collects "vast swathes" of data on Americans and other users, allowing "the Chinese Communist Party a mechanism for keeping tabs on Chinese citizens who may be enjoying the benefits of a free society for the first time in their lives."
"WeChat, like TikTok, also reportedly censors content that the Chinese Communist Party deems politically sensitive and may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party," the order went on to read.
Tencent, meanwhile, denies all claims of wrongdoing, insisting its finances are "transparent."
When asked why Tencent is sponsoring the Oxford chair, Ling Ge, the company's Chief European Representative, declined to answer. It remains unclear as to whether she personally played any role in negotiating the grant.
"There seems to be no end to the degree that universities will bend the knee to China for money," lamented former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, urging Oxford to reconsider the partnership.
"The reality is Chinese companies are obligated to the Chinese security apparatus to pass on information on demand, and for Oxford to celebrate Tencent by renaming this professorship is grotesque."
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis said much the same thing, calling the partnership "a very unwise decision."
The former head of MI6 also expressed shock that Oxford would agree to rename a prestigious chair like this for a paltry £700,000 cash payment.
"The usual price for such things is in the millions," Davis is quoted as saying. "Having a foothold in the Oxford physics department is obviously of strategic interest to the Chinese government, and we should be very wary indeed of this kind of investment."
Tencent is currently the world's largest computer gaming platform. It has a huge presence in social media and online shopping, just like WeChat, and is said to be worth upwards of £500 billion, or about $6.9 billion.
During the early days of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) "pandemic," WeChat played a critical role in spreading fearmongering propaganda to the masses.
To keep up with the latest news about communist Chinese infiltration of the West, visit Tyranny.news.
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