Discipline Inspection Committee reaches out to faculties and departments CPC revises regulations on the work of grassroots organizations in universities

Chinese official media People’s Daily released on April 23 the newly revised Regulations on the Work of the Basic Level Organizations of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in General Institutions of Higher Education, which further penetrate the organization of the CPC to the grassroots of Chinese universities.

The revised regulation emphasizes that the Party’s leadership should be implemented in the “whole process and all aspects” of running the universities to ensure that the Party’s education policy and the decisions of the Party Central Committee are implemented.

Another new regulation requires the party committees of universities to set up discipline inspection committees or discipline inspection members in the party committees of faculties and departments, depending on the specific situation.

Patricia M. Thornton, a political scientist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, tweeted an analysis of the working regulation that threatens to further curtail academic freedom in colleges and universities; she also fears that the regulation could be extended to universities in Hong Kong.

The Regulations on the Work of the Basic Organizations of the Communist Party of China in General Institutions of Higher Education were first issued in 2010 and approved for revision at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in February this year. However, it is unclear what the reasons were for making this revision.