China’s most prestigious and erstwhile intellectually institution, Peking University, has just had a Xi Jinping crony, Qiu Shuiping appointed as its Communist Party secretary. As Bill Bishop’s superb “Sinocism” newsletter notes, Qiu “is a long time Beijing official with deep experience in the politics and law system, including a stint as the Party secretary of the Beijing bureau of the Ministry of State Security.”

That’s striking. Because the Ministry of State Security is China’s primary domestic intelligence organization. Monitoring and constraining dissident movements that are perceived to be acting against the central committee in Beijing, the MSS is a capable secret police force. But its interests are antithetical to intellectual freedom and academic inquiry. So, the fact that Qiu will now take over as Peking University’s de facto top official is significant.