UpdateEx-police chief named party head of China’s first ‘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”.
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 (SUSTC) during a meeting on 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.
Though Li is familiar with the politics on campus, is he the best person to lead SUSTC? The appointment makes us suspicious
“A modernised university should be set up in accordance with a university charter approved by a legislature, a people’s congress in the region [whether provincial or municipal],” Chu said in an interview with the South China Morning Post in 2011.