PDF《CE NTR AL I NTE L L I G E NCE AG E》

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1 CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY DIRECTORATE OF INTELLIGENCE China: Student Informant System to Expand, Limiting School Autonomy, Free Expression (U//FOUO)

23 November

2010 CIA-DI-10-05021 This report was prepared by the Open Source Works, which was charged by the Director for Intelligence with drawing on language- trained analysts to mine open-source information for new or alternative insights on intelligence issues.

Open Source Works'

products, based only on open source information, do not represent the coordinated views of the Central Intelligence Agency. Comments and queries are welcome and may be forwarded to the Director for Analysis, Open Source Works at 866-509-9403. (U//FOUO) Chinese educators and Communist Party officials are expanding the student informant system (SIS) to a growing number of Chinese universities, colleges, vocational institutes, and lower- level schools. Students designated as student-informants, who report to an academic affairs department, engage in political spying on both professors and fellow students and denounce professors and students for politically subversive or unconventional views. (U//FOUO) The principal objective of the SIS is to ensure campus stability and to control the debate and discussion of politically sensitive issues. Students have had their scholarships revoked and their academic records penalized because of information provided by student informants that is sometimes highly subjective, such as facial expressions. Since 2002, the SIS has added a separate, secret system of student informants who report to university security departments. (U//FOUO) Despite some teacher and student resistance, the government appears determined to continue to use the SIS as a tool to ensure political stability on Chinese campuses, as evidenced by government studies touting its utility and effectiveness for improving education. The limited public debate on the SIS focuses on its impact on freedom of speech, the risk of spreading a culture of denunciation, and the harm the system does to cultivating talented students. (U//FOUO) Motives for Creating and Expanding the Student Informant System (U) The SIS had several announced objectives from its outset in 1989, such as improving the quality of college and university teaching, increasing student involvement in key aspects of education, and improving each school'

s ability to manage both the teaching and learning functions in schools. In practice, however, the SIS'

s principal objective is to monitor and control teachers and students. (U//FOUO) UNCLASSIFIED//FOUO UNCLASSIFIED//FOUO

2 Officials at a few elite universities first implemented the SIS after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, in which university students played the most prominent role. Government and Party officials were determined to suppress simmering resentment on campus, and identify and monitor potential future student leaders. Education officials expanded the system during the early 2000s to such provincial universities as Wuhan University, Shanghai Normal University, and Nanchang University as part of a set of educational reforms. In 2005, the Ministry of Education issued a revised version of the Provisions on the Administration of Students in Colleges and Universities that promulgated rules on the management of students and promotes greater student involvement in curriculum, teaching, and evaluation―called a student-oriented education system. The

2005 Provisions also strengthened the SIS, which thereafter expanded into lower-tier universities (such as the Huzhou Teachers Institute in Zhejiang province), technical schools (such as the Shangqiu Vocational Technical College in Henan province), and also into middle and high schools (such as the Baoping Middle School of Yunyang County, Chongqing municipality). (U//FOUO) Many Names, Same Informant System (U) Officials at China'