Australia should consider more rigorous visa checks on Chinese scientists as part of its strategy to avoid technology from joint research projects being co-opted for military, surveillance or human rights abuses, a new paper argues.

The paper, from think tank China Matters, also warned that Australia's scientific collaborations with China could be hurt by a rapid increase in the number of Chinese companies banned from doing business with the United States.

More rigorous visa checks on Chinese scientists have been urged in a new paper. Credit:Bloomberg

University and security agencies are in talks about how to monitor international research partnerships with China amid concerns that some technologies, such as artificial intelligence, could be used in ways they were not intended.

But universities are also concerned that a heavy-handed approach would prevent valuable research projects with top scientists, such as the Australian-Chinese collaboration that produced the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil.