History
The University of International Relations was founded in 1949 to train foreign affairs cadres for the newly created People’s Republic of China. In 1961, the school merged with the Foreign Affairs College.
In 1964, then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the creation of colleges and university departments to focus on international affairs. Several government agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Liaison Department, established their own institutes for the study of international affairs. The University of International Affairs in Beijing was formally brought under the control of the Ministry of Public Security in 1965, and was charged with training intelligence agents for the Investigation Department (a precursor to the Ministry of State Security) and for Xinhua News Agency.
Like many schools in China, the University of International Affairs was shuttered during China's Cultural Revolution, and reopened in 1978. It was among the first institutions of higher education authorized by the Chinese government to offer academic degrees in China.
The Ministry of State Security was created in 1983 under Deng Xiaoping, and assumed the functions that previously belonged to the Central Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence and the conservative think tank the Jamestown Foundation, the University is now bureaucratically subordinate to the Ministry of State Security.
Read more about this topic: University Of International Relations
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“Bias, point of view, fury—are they ... so dangerous and must they be ironed out of history, the hills flattened and the contours leveled? The professors talk ... about passion and point of view in history as a Calvinist talks about sin in the bedroom.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)