China’s military research absorbs HK, Macau. Track the links with ASPI’s updated China Defence Universities Tracker
The tendency to treat universities in Hong Kong and Macau as somehow separated from the mainstream of Chinese research institutions is long out of date. Since the territories were handed over to China in the late 1990s, their universities have built deep links with mainland China’s research ecosystem. These include links in defence-related fields such as aviation, lasers and space technology, new ASPI research shows.
ASPI has now expanded its globally recognised China Defence Universities Tracker to include Hong Kong and Macau. In doing so, it finds that several universities in these two special administrative regions (SARs) now work closely with Chinese defence and space conglomerates and have also contributed directly to China’s lunar missions.
Hong Kong and Macau universities remain under local SAR government administration and have not been formally transferred to the supervision of any Chinese government ministry. But they have steadily expanded their access to mainland research partners, opened campuses and offices across the border and contributed a growing flow of funds to Chinese state-linked research.
This expanding integration with defence-related research and development in China suggests that research security assessments that examine only universities under formal PRC ministries will not fully capture the defence exposure carried by universities in Hong Kong and Macau. ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker makes these less formal relationships more transparent.
The trend is most apparent in science and technology. At universities in both cities, China has established state key laboratories– nationally important research centres overseen by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Additionally, the National Natural Science Foundation of China now jointly funds cross-border science, technology and medicine projects with Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council.
As of 2026, Hong Kong hosts 15 state key laboratories. It also hosts six branches of Chinese national engineering research centres. These centres channel mainland scholars into SAR institutions and bind the universities into national research agendas.
The result is a dense web of ties across national scientific and defence-linked programs. A selection is set out below.
Space
- Macau University of Science and Technology was the first SAR university to be brought into China’s space program. It joined research for Chang’e, China’s lunar program, in 2005, opened a Space Science Institute in 2011 and established the joint State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences in 2018. The university has also established joint laboratories with China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and with the Chinese Academy of Sciences – launching the Macau Science-1 satellite in 2023.
- The University of Macau collaborates with the China National Space Administration on remote sensing and has established a satellite ground station in Macau with the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University collaborates extensively with Chinese defence conglomerate China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and a research institute affiliated with it, China Academy of Space Technology. The university has contributed to China’s Chang’e 3, Chang’e 4, and Chang’e 5 lunar missions and the Tianwen 1 Mars mission.
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology launched a satellite developed in conjunction with Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co Ltd in 2023. It has also developed gas monitors for China’s space station and is leading a project to build a lunar robot for the Chang’e 8 mission.
- The City University of Hong Kong is also a partner in the Hong Kong Space Robotics and Energy Centre’s Chang’e 8 lunar robot project, overseen by the China National Space Administration’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Centre.
- The University of Hong Kong’s Laboratory for Space Research partners with the Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electricity, China National Nuclear Corporation, China Institute of Atomic Energy and Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Centre for Space Utilization.
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) hosts the State Key Laboratory of Quantum Information Technologies and Materials (CUHK), which works on space-based quantum communication, space-based remote sensing and navigation. A Satellite Remote Sensing Station has been established at the university, and the university also operates the Hong Kong base of the National Remote Sensing Center of China. In December 2024, the International Satellite Data and Application Cooperation Council Unit was launched at CUHK.
Aviation
- The University of Hong Kong has signed a cooperation agreement with the Manufacturing Technology Institute of Chinese defence conglomerate AVIC.
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology operates an Aerial Robotics Group working in areas with potential military application. The sanctioned drone manufacturer DJI, which holds more than 75 percent of the global civilian drone market, grew out of research at the university, and the university’s professor Li Zexiang chairs the company. This is a reminder that exposure travels through spin-outs and people, not only through signed agreements.
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University established the Joint Research Centre of Advanced Aerospace Propulsion Technology with China’s Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology, under defence and space conglomerate China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. At the 2026 China Space Conference, hosted by the university, it also signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Mechanics and the Guangdong Aerospace Research Academy, an advanced aerospace and defence research facility specialising in hypersonic flight systems and celestial navigation technologies.
Military medicine
- The Hong Kong SAR University Grants Committee has funded research conducted with the armed forces’ Academy of Military Medical Sciences. The University of Hong Kong maintains partnerships with the medical universities of the navy, army and air force. In this case there isn’t even an attempted cut-out: the counterparty is the armed forces themselves.
Artificial intelligence
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology collaborates with Peng Cheng laboratory in AI research. It has also established a series of joint laboratories with major Chinese technology firms – with WeChat on AI technology in 2015, with Alibaba on big data and AI in 2024 and with JD.com on AI in 2025.
Deep sea exploration
- Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has taken part in research aboard the Chinese research vessel Shenhai Yihao (Deep Sea Number 1), the activities of which are closely tied to China’s naval research.
High energy physics
- In March 2019, the City University of Hong Kong and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Energy Physics established the City University of Hong Kong-Institute of High Energy Physics Joint Laboratory on Neutron Scattering.
Lasers
Quantum
- In July 2026, the Macau branch of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (Guangdong) Quantum Science Centre was established in collaboration with Macao University of Science and Technology.
Intelligent sensing
This is only the tip of the collaboration and influence iceberg. Extended and more granular information on these projects, along with details of defence-linked personnel who have moved from the mainland into SAR universities, is now available in ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker.
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