Chinese university to set up anti-terrorism school

Beijing

The Northwest University of Political Science and Law in Xi'an, in the northwest Shaanxi province, which is starting the school specialising in courses like counter-terrorism would take in law graduates and teach them the latest anti-terrorism theories and practices, Zhang Jinping who is managing the establishment of the school told state-run Global Times.

The institute would award masters degrees and doctorates in anti-terrorism studies, the university said.

Enrolment of the first class of undergraduate students is now underway, and the programme will formally commence at the start of the spring term, Zhang said.

Zhang said that students will be required to take courses in conventional disciplines such as law, religion, politics and sociology in addition to anti-terrorism courses, adding that the purpose is to cultivate interdisciplinary competency.

"The school of anti-terrorism is being founded to respond to the country's demand for anti-terrorism specialists," said the professor, who noted that China is still facing severe threats of terrorism.

The university is, in fact, not the first in China to set up an anti-terrorism school.

In 2014, the People's Public Security University of China in Beijing expanded its department of public security intelligence into an anti-terrorism school, Chen Gang, dean of the School of Anti-terrorism told the daily.

"Students in the anti-terrorism track need to have comprehensive knowledge in multiple areas such as religion, ethnicity and criminology," Chen said.

Chen is optimistic about the future employment prospects of the school's graduates.

China's security chief Meng Jianzhu emphasised the importance of improving the country's anti-terrorism capabilities and deepening international cooperation efforts at an anti-terrorism work meeting in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region where Chinese security forces are battling militants from the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

At the end of that month, China's top legislative body passed the country's first anti-terrorism law.

The drafting of the law was accelerated after a series of terror attacks in China, including the 2014 attack in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan province, which left 31 dead and 141 injured.

The law, which came into effect on January 1, aims to create a legal framework to both address terrorism at home and help maintain global security.