Sichuan International Studies University issued an internal notice to recruit student information officers. The notice stated that candidates will be managed and paid by the Chongqing City Public Security Bureau. Their responsibility will be to monitor security information on campus. Students who understand minority languages are preferred. It is believed that this was meant to be able to monitor foreign students from the countries where such languages are spoken.
In the notice that the security office of the university issued on March 8, it said that they will hire 3 student information officers for each department. It is believed that there is already one anonymous student information officer in each class to monitor speech by fellow classmates and professors.
Since Xi Jinping came to power, universities have elevated the ideological control on campus. The authorities have secretly deployed surveillance personnel in schools to monitor teachers’ speech in the classroom and student activities. Since 2019, dozens of teaching staff, including Tang Yun, a professor at Chongqing Normal University, have lost their teaching positions due to student informants. Professors are now highly alert and have had to self-censor their speech inside and outside the classroom.
Source: Radio Free Asia, March 11, 2021
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/minority-03112021050316.html
