College Investments And Links To Chinese Companies and Universities
Dear Trinity College, Cambridge,
This is a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Could you please provide:
(1) A list of companies which the College holds stocks and shares in, specifying how many shares are held and the approximate value of the shareholding.
(2) A list of exchange traded funds, private equity funds, mutual funds, index funds, commodities, hedge funds, and bonds that the college has investments in, including the approximate value of each.
(3) In the case of any indirectly held or fund-based investments a breakdown of the companies invested in through the fund, including the percentage of the total fund made up by each holding.
(4) A list of donations from and other professorships, fellowships, institutes or any other academic opportunities funded by Chinese companies including, but not limited to:
- Huawei
- Alibaba
- Tencent
- China Electronics Technology Group Corporation
- Yitu
- Megvii
- SenseTime
- CloudWalk
- Hikvision
(5) A list of any other instances of cooperation, academic or otherwise, between the College and universities and companies based in China.
If you are to invoke Section 43 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please note you must provide details of the exact FOIA exemption, details of who would be prejudiced by this information, and a public interest test justifying a conclusion with arguments for and against the release of the information.
If you are to invoke Section 12 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please provide details of how locating, retrieving and extracting this information would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Please also be aware of your duty under section 16 (1) of the Act to advise and assist me in narrowing my request to bring it within the appropriate limit.
Thank you very much for your assistance with this request. If you would like any clarification on the information I have asked for, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I look forward to receiving your response in the next 20 working days.
Yours faithfully,
Oliver Walsh
Dear Oliver Walsh,_
I am the Freedom of Information officer for Trinity College Cambridge,
responding to your request of 18 July for information about our
investments and links to Chinese companies.
The first three of your questions concern the College's total holdings
in securities, whether or not linked to Chinese companies. The
information you request is set out in the attached
documents, which show holdings at 30 June 2020 (the end of the last of
our financial years for which we have audited accounts).
On your question 4, a search through our records of donations received,
and specific searches for the nine Chinese companies listed, have not
revealed any such donations or funding by Chinese companies.
On your question 5, among the 97 business tenants on the Cambridge
Science Park, which is owned and administered by the college, are Huawei
(which is on your list for Q4) and Tuspark, which is a company connected
with Tsinghua University in Shanghai involved in development of such
parks.
Should you have any queries or complaints about this reply you may write
to the Junior Bursar at Trinity College, Cambridge. Any complaint
should be in writing and should set out clearly the grounds for such
complaint. Should you not be satisfied with the outcome, you have the
right of appeal to the Information Commissioner.
Yours sincerely
Chris Morley
Dr C.T. Morley, Secretary of the Council,
Trinity College Cambridge CB2 1TQ
Direct: 01223 338469
Email: [Trinity College, Cambridge request email]
Web: http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/
Registered charity number 1137604
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