'Dismayed' academics rally behind Anne-Marie Brady over China research paper

17:28, Oct 09 2020
MORNING REPORT/RNZ
Data leaked by a Chinese company on prominent New Zealanders could be linked to attempts to influence NZ politics and business, says Canterbury University professor Anne-Marie Brady. (First published September 16, 2020)

More than 100 academics and supporters of University of Canterbury (UC) professor Anne-Marie Brady have signed a letter calling for her employer to apologise and criticising its review of her work.

Brady, a prominent researcher on China and its efforts to influence Western democracies, drew ire from her colleagues in July when she presented a paper as a supplementary submission to Parliament’s justice select committee.

The paper, which Brady co-authored, discussed how Chinese companies and universities may be exploiting relationships with New Zealand counterparts to transfer technology useful to the Chinese military. Several academics from UC and other New Zealand universities complained about assertions in the paper.

UC deputy vice-chancellor Ian Wright said the complainants cited “manifest errors of fact and misleading inferences”. The university was reviewing the matter.

READ MORE:
* Canterbury Uni orders review into publication by China expert Anne-Marie Brady
* University of Canterbury collaborating with Institute linked to Chinese military
* Police investigation into incidents against Christchurch-based China expert stalls
* Global China watchers call for protection for professor Anne-Marie Brady over harassment
* Academics urge PM Jacinda Ardern to take stand against Chinese intervention

This week, a letter was published online in support of Brady and addressed to Wright and UC vice-chancellor Cheryl de la Rey.

The 131 signatories included academics at New Zealand and foreign universities, many of them experts in Asia or international affairs, as well as researchers, journalists, military personnel and Labour MPs Clare Curran and Louisa Wall.

The group, citing Stuff’s story, said it was “dismayed” to learn of the complaints against Brady, and the UC review.

Signatories said UC should have rejected the complaints against Professor Anne-Marie Brady and instead published criticism of her paper.
University of Canterbury
Signatories said UC should have rejected the complaints against Professor Anne-Marie Brady and instead published criticism of her paper.

“We, who know this area, can see no manifest errors or misleading inferences based on the evidenced material provided in the report,” the letter said.

“The paper does not make ‘inferences’. People who study it may draw some, but that does not mean the paper made them, misleading or otherwise.”

It went on to express disappointment that UC had not promptly explained its position on the complaints against Brady nor clarified that its decision to review did not amount to an endorsement of those complaints.

“The silence has been interpreted as collaboration in slander against a very distinguished scholar whose work has been consistently based on sound social scientific methodology.”

The signatories asked de la Rey to apologise to Brady on behalf of UC for reviewing the matter instead of following the usual practice in academic disagreements of publishing criticism. They requested Wright apologise for lending the complaints credence with his comments, “whether or not he intended that”.

“We would have expected you to stand up for your university, the right of any of its members to publish their research freely, however contentious, and for Professor Brady as a brave colleague,” the letter said.

“She has been the target of a harassment campaign and threatening menace because of the serious implications of her important research.”

University of Canterbury spokesperson said the university would not comment “to protect the privacy of natural persons”.

Stuff