Universities accused of ideological weakness

China’s anti-corruption watchdog has accused 14 top universities of ideological infractions after a months-long investigation, as the country’s ruling Communist Party broadens its political control over educational institutions, reports the Financial Times.

“Ideological and political work is relatively weak, and the implementation of ideological systems is not strong enough,” said a report by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, or CCDI, criticising the party committees at each university and urging them to “take responsibility” for their shortcomings.

The assessment comes after teams of CCDI inspectors were dispatched to 29 universities earlier this year with the remit of “upholding the party’s leadership and party-building” and to root out “political bias”. Some of the universities castigated, including Tsinghua University and Peking University, have academic programmes and research partnerships with prominent Western educational institutions. Another, Wuhan University, has a joint venture with Duke University.
Full report on the Financial Times site