China has banned all university textbooks promoting Western values from its educational curriculum, which many viewed as another tightening control on academics by President Xi Jinping since assuming the communist party leadership in 2012.

The state-run news agency Xinhua reported that China's education minister, Yuan Guiren, has announced that all textbooks critical of the Communist Party and slander socialism have no place in college classrooms, Xinhua added.

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"Never let textbooks promoting western values appear in our classes," minister Yuan Guiren said, according to Xinhua.

Most of China's universities are run by the communist party which dictates topics to be discussed and exercises strict control on subjects like history which it construes as a potential threat to its grip on power.

Several outspoken professors have already  been sacked and even jailed  over the years for refusing to toe China's line in implementing its educational policy of  'no western value'  in college textbooks and discussions.

For the communist party, concepts such as multiparty elections and separation of powers are considered western ideas that have no place in the university curriculum despite their global appeal and application.

An economics professor at the prestigious Peking University, Xia Yellang was sacked in 2013 after a 13 year tenure for persistent calls for a change in the political climate in China.

Peking University officials said Xia's dismissal was due to 'poor teaching.' The professor moved to the United States last year.

Speculations were rife that .Yuan made the announcement after Xi Jinping called on all the party officials to focus their leadership on university affairs and 'to strengthen and improve ideological work.'

Xinhua said the communist leadership plan to install CCTV cameras in university classrooms to monitor classroom discussions and to identify and punish outspoken teachers who will not obey the party's educational policy.

Lawyers have expressed indignation over the plan saying that it will further curb academic freedom.

Chinese authorities said that they have had CCTV cameras installed in university classrooms in the past  which helped them identify professors who do not  comply with Chinese rules and regulations.

Recently, Uighur economics professor Iham Thoti was arrested and sentenced to life in prison from separatism charge last September. Reports said the CCTV cameras provided the evidence needed to convict the scholar.

TagsWestern IDEAS, education