Ex-police chief to lead ‘bureaucracy-free’ university

A former police chief has been named the party chief of a Shenzhen-based university designed to be the nation’s first ‘red tape-free’ higher education institute – an appointment that was deemed by some mainland citizens as ‘suspicious’, writes Andrea Chen for South China Morning Post.

The Guangdong provincial party committee appointed Li Ming, ex-head of the Shenzhen public security bureau, to lead the South University of Science and Technology of China, during a meeting last Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported. Li, who also has a background in teaching, will replace the school’s founding president, Zhu Qingshi.

When the university was established with financial backing from the Shenzhen municipal government, Zhu had vowed to build the nation’s first ultra-modern education institution that would be free of bureaucracy, which he deemed the education system’s biggest stumbling block. However, in response to the latest appointment, microbloggers questioned whether Li – who comes from the bureaucracy – could maintain a truly non-bureaucratic set-up.
Full report on the South China Morning Post site