Sino-Belgian research collaborations and Chinese military power

China’s rise as a scientific superpower and its increasingly assertive geopolitical stance have raised concerns among Western governments over the security implications of research collaborations with China. Indeed, studies have revealed how China uses technology transfers to advance its military capabilities. In this article, we examine the links of Sino-Belgian research collaborations to the Chinese military and the evolution of these collaborations using a mixed methods approach comprising a bibliometric analysis and two case studies. Our study finds that 10% of Sino-Belgian collaborations were on critical technologies and conducted with scientists affiliated to Chinese institutes with military links. The collaborations with a military link have increased rapidly over the last two decades and have grown faster than the overall Sino- Belgian research collaborations. The results of the study reveal that research collaboration in the knowledge domain has crucial ties to the security domain and should therefore be considered in international security analysis. However, invoking Susan Strange’s structural power theory, we argue that Sino-Belgian research collaborations should not only be seen as contributing to China’s military power but also as a function of China’s growing overall power, including in the knowledge structure, where it entails the power to convey or deny knowledge.