Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

In response to a question from AFP about a report claiming that a UK university had halted a professor's human rights research under pressure from China, after which the university's website in China was also blocked, and that the UK government had claimed it had raised the issue with the Chinese side, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Tuesday that "the individual you mentioned is part of an anti-China disinformation supply chain. She herself admitted in interviews that her so-called 'research' was funded and supported by some countries' governmental departments and even security agencies," Mao added. 

"Such self-hyping act, carried out in the name of academic freedom, is essentially an act of spreading rumors for profit," said the spokesperson.

Global Times