Program aims to meet China's growing security demands
Northwest University of Political Science and Law in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is establishing a new school specializing in anti-terrorism.
Each year, the school will enroll two classes of undergraduate students from the university's freshman and sophomore classes in addition to more than 36 postgraduate students from across the nation, including at least six doctoral students, Zhang Jinping, who is managing the establishment of the new school, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Enrollment of the first class of undergraduate students is now underway, and the program will formally commence at the start of the spring term, Zhang explained, noting that the university has already set up doctoral and master's programs in anti-terrorism.
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 Global Times on Wednesday.
"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, pointing out that many are pre-assigned jobs upon their admission.
China's security chief Meng Jianzhu emphasized 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 on December 10.
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 takes effect on January 1, aims to create a legal framework to both address terrorism at home and help maintain global security, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
