lørdag 23. mars 2024

What Will Newly Increased Party Control Mean for China’s Universities?

In January, Radio Free Asia reported that the Chinese Communist Party is “taking a direct role in the running of universities across the country” by merging the presidents’ offices with their Party committees.

Ideological controls on universities have been tightening for more than a decade. In 2013, a leaked Party directive, Document 9, warned against threats to the Party’s rule from “mistaken views and ideas . . . public lectures, seminars, university classrooms, class discussion forums,” and in the media and on the Internet. Last year, the Party’s General Office renewed the warning with a notice ordering legal theorists and educators to “firmly oppose and resist erroneous Western views of ‘constitutional government,’ ‘separation of three powers,’ and ‘independence of the judiciary.’”