Xi’s Security Obsession Turns Ordinary Citizens Into Spy Hunters
- Propaganda blitz at universities, on social media ups paranoia
- Chinese leader wants ‘extreme-case’ mindset on foreign threats
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As students flooded back into Beijing’s top universities in early September, a propaganda blitz around campuses signaled an ominous addition to their syllabus: a crash course on how to catch spies.
At the government-run Tsinghua University videos were beamed onto faculty screens instructing teachers and students to become a “defense line” against foreign forces, while the Beijing University of Technology threw a national-security themed garden party, according to the nation’s spy agency.