Xi Jinping's focus on security is turning students into spy hunters: Report

As Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasises rooting out foreign espionage threats that the country faces, the Chinese government and authorities in many parts of the country are encouraging and 'educating' people on how to catch spies, reported Bloomberg.

The efforts have also led universities to bring their students into focus in this apparent push to hunt foreign spies.

The Bloomberg report talked about a 'propaganda blitz' targeted at university students that was akin to a 'crash course' in catching spies.

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Videos shown to students and faculty at government-run Tsinghua University reportedly urged them to be a “defence line” against foreign forces.

A 'national-security themed garden party' was thrown by the Beijing University of Technology, said the report.

What's more, the students at Beihang University were reportedly asked to play an interactive game called Who's the Spy. Beihang University is an aeronautics institute which is under US sanctions due to its links with the Chinese military.

The push to encourage people to catch spies around them is wider. Police in China's Henan Province have asked citizens to quiz 'suspicious' neighbours on popular culture in order to test their patriotism.

In the month of May this year, Xi Jinping chaired a National Security Council meeting. During the meeting, the importance of 'extreme-scenario thinking' was emphasised.

The use of this term in the context of national security is interesting as the term was previously used in the context of natural disaster preparedness. The push to encourage people to catch spies has followed the meeting.

This is not the first time Chinese people have been encouraged to 'tell on' others. Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution was a very violent period in China's history. During the period, the public was encouraged to report the slightest hint of a friend or a relative possibly being linked to those conspiring to topple the Communist Party.

Bloomberg report mentioned that China offers incentives for reporting on spies. For every genuine case of a spy being successfully reported, a citizen can get up to 500,000 yuan ($68,160).

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