Chongqing University Openly Recruits Undercover Students to Enhance Surveillance of Foreign Students’ Speech and Behavior

Sichuan International Studies University recently hired additional student information officers through internal selection, the university publicly stated that the appointee must be accountable to the police, the honorarium is also paid by the police, the duty is to monitor the campus security-related intelligence, students who know small languages can be employed first. It is believed that the measure is to strengthen the surveillance of foreign students.

The Security Office of Sichuan International Studies University issued a written notice on Monday (8), planning to recruit three “campus security information officers” in each college, the notice said it was based on the requirements of the higher public security organs, the duty is to collect and report information materials related to campus security, used to maintain the political stability of the campus. The news said that previously, it is suspected that each class of the school has hidden an information officer to monitor the speech of students and teachers.

This Time, the open recruitment in the school is the school’s initiative to increase the number of information officers. The notice states that recruitment is limited to sophomores, juniors and first-year students, and emphasizes that party members, student cadres, those who know small languages and those from poor families are preferred. The honorarium and bonus will be allocated by the Chongqing Public Security Bureau.

Mr. Zheng, an informed local source, told the station that the information officer system, which has been vigorously promoted on campus since Xi Jinping came to power, is actually a way to plant informers among students. The staff arrangement is preferable to student party members and poor students.

Mr. Zheng said: very simple, the security information officer, the student part-time job, is the informer. The professor who is dealing with the country, in fact, many of them are the so-called campus security information officer reported. You see it requires party members, student cadres, in fact, is the political trial well. To poor families, from the economy has been allocated to pay and bonus la. I don’t know what kind of arrangement it school out of.

Some educators have pointed out that in recent years there have been more students speaking Arabic than any other language. However, she refused to comment on whether the arrangement would be related to ethnic issues in the country, including the Xinjiang issue.

Ms. Luo said: small language ah, you have to look at what language well. Arabic is in demand, and it should be different every year.

A former student of Sichuan Foreign Studies University, who studied the subject of small languages, said that the State Security to their schools to recruit information officers, small languages are also the key consideration. He also said that although the university is openly recruiting information officers, but after being hired, the identity of these “campus security information officers” will be strictly confidential.

Chen Shumin, a visiting scholar from Wuhan, told the station that in China, even student leaders are not aware that they are being closely monitored by the university during their studies.

Chen Shumin said: “I don’t know how it works, but I think if they are looking for information, they will look for those party members. I didn’t think about it at all, I didn’t hear about it at all, when we were at school, I didn’t know they were spying on us. I don’t know about this at all, I have a classmate who is the class president and he doesn’t know about this either.

The Security Office of Sichuan International Studies University confirmed to the station the recruitment of information officers, but must be reviewed by the Ministry of Publicity before being interviewed.

Security Office: We can’t talk to you about this. We do not accept interviews, you need to find the publicity department. The propaganda department agreed and called us before we could.

The teacher in charge of the selection process, Li Mou, whose cell phone has been unanswered.

Since Xi Jinping came to power, ideological controls at Chinese universities have escalated, and authorities have also secretly deployed surveillance officers in schools to monitor teachers’ speech in the classroom and student dynamics. dozens of teaching staff, including Tang Yun, a professor at Chongqing Normal University, have lost their teaching jobs so far in 2019 after student information officers denounced them. The ubiquitous surveillance has also led to professors being forced to self-censor their own speech both inside and outside the classroom.