Ingrid d’Hooghe on Chinese funding for CCHRC at the Free University of Amsterdam

Following an investigation by the NOS, the Free University of Amsterdam (VU) said it will accept no further Chinese funding for its Cross Cultural Human Rights Centre (CCHRC).

LeidenAsiaCentre researcher Ingrid d’Hooghe wrote an article for het Financieel Dagblad (Dutch) on the matter, arguing the Dutch government should develop regulations for academic collaboration with Chinese partners.

In addition, she was cited in an article by University World News, emphasising that there currently is no regulation in the Netherlands that forces people to register what kind of collaboration they have: “It’s not necessarily that people want to keep it a secret, it’s just not something that is done routinely. So at top levels in the university, but often even at the faculty level, the departments don’t have a good overview of exactly what kind of research is being done with whom, and how this is financed.”