Education First teachers, foreign students held in China on drugs charges

A total of 16 foreign teachers and students are among 19 people detained in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu in an anti-narcotics crackdown, according to police.

A statement by the Xuzhou public security bureau’s Quanshan branch on Wednesday morning did not elaborate on the nationalities of the foreigners, or what drugs were involved, but it is known that some of the teachers are from the Xuzhou branch of Education First (EF).

One foreign national is in criminal detention – indicating that a formal charge and prosecution is imminent – while the rest are in administrative detention which carries a maximum term of 15 days.

The police statement said officers had “acted on a clue and successfully cracked a case involving narcotics” earlier this month, with those detained testing positive for drugs.

“So far 19 people, including 16 foreign nationals, implicated in the case have been caught. Seven of them are foreign teachers in an education centre and the nine others are students,” the statement said.

Beijing News reported on Tuesday night that the foreign teachers were from the Xuzhou branch of EF and, on Wednesday, EF issued a statement on its Weibo social media account to say the contracts of the teachers involved would be terminated.