It Did Happen Here

So much for China’s long-promised liberalization:

China’s security chief called for stepping up “patriotic education” in Tibet’s monasteries, the state-run Tibet Daily said Tuesday, as prosecutors for the first time charged demonstrators in the largely peaceful, monk-led protests that later exploded into riots in the region.

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu led the first high-level central government visit to Tibet since the riots broke out this month. In the face of international criticism of China’s crackdown, he stressed that the government would “fight an active publicity battle” and solicit the help of Communist Party cadres.

Not only is Beijing turning monasteries into reeducation camps, they’re also calling a press blackout “an active publicity battle.”

Replace “monasteries” with “campuses” and “publicity battle” with “speech code” and you’ve got something a lot like modern American academia.