The Communist Party
Sias University
Henan Provence, China
Spring 2012
When I taught at SIAS University, I was assigned specific classrooms which had cable monitors on at all time. I was not allowed to move my students to another classroom and I had to submit my powerpoint presentations to the Party for review so that I wasn't teaching anything that contradicted the position of the government.
While there certainly was a communist presence on campus, my students seemed oblivious to the party and any effect it had on their lives. Most of my students were apolitical and had no intention of joining the party. I always thought that everyone was a member of the party but I was mistaken. A person has to apply to be a member and go through physical training and classes. After passing certain criteria, membership is granted as a privilege, not an earned right. Membership in the party allows you to vote for the one candidate offered in each election. It opens up doors for political jobs and it allows you to spy on your neighbors for the good of the country.
The president of the university had the Party breathing down his neck at all times. That made some of what we were doing, suspect to the Party Secretary. Some things that we wanted to do and were so benign, were rejected. Then we got the "go-ahead" on other things only to be reprimanded later.
While all of this drove me crazy, my students didn't seem to mind. As one student told me, "We have to trust our government to look after us. After all, there are a billion of us. They know what is best for all of us."
