"UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China", Guardian, 3 November 2025

[…] Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China.

Murphy’s work focuses on Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority in China, being co-opted into forced labour programmes. Her research, and that of colleagues at the HKC, has been cited widely by western governments and the UN, and has helped to shape policies designed to root out goods made by forced labour from international supply chains. The Chinese government rejects accusations of forced labour, and says that Uyghur work programmes are for poverty alleviation. […]

The decision to halt Murphy’s research appeared to come from a number of factors. Officially, the university gave two reasons: concern about the safety of staff in China, and the fact that, after being sued by a Chinese company named in one of the HKC’s reports, the university’s insurance provider said it would no longer cover work produced by the HKC for defamation risk. That lawsuit is ongoing. […]

Another concern came from the fact that in April 2024, Sheffield Hallam’s Beijing office was visited by three state security officers. An employee was questioned for two hours regarding the HKC. According to an internal summary of the meeting seen by the Guardian, “the tone was threatening and [the] message to cease the research activity was made clear”. […]

Claire Powell, a solicitor at Leigh Day, which represents Murphy, said: “This is an extremely serious and troubling case that raises wider concerns about the academic freedom of staff and students at universities across the UK.”