University of International Relations

Not to be confused with China Foreign Affairs University.

The University of International Relations (UIR; Chinese: 国际关系学院; pinyin: Guójì Guānxì Xuéyuàn) is a national public university in Beijing, China.

University of International Relations

国际关系学院 (Chinese)
Other name	国关 Guó Gūan
Former names	Institute of International Relations
Established	1949; 74 years ago (1949)
Parent institution	Ministry of State Security
Officer in charge	Lin Xiaoke
Chairman	Liu Hui
Vice-president	Guo Huimin
Location	Haidian District, Beijing , China 40°00′08″N 116°16′48″E / 40.0021°N 116.2801°E / 40.0021; 116.2801
Website	www.uir.cn
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	国际关系学院
Traditional Chinese	國際關係學院
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guójì Guānxì Xuéyuàn

The Institute for International Relations, later translated into English as Institute of International Relations, was established in 1949 by the first premier of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai, to train diplomats.^[1] It became one of the National Key Universities in 1960, and was one of the first in China to offer master's degrees. In 1983, the school became the first foreign studies institute in China to evolve into a comprehensive university.^[2][3]

The University of International Relations has offered a joint doctoral program with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, the 11th Bureau of the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China's civilian intelligence agency.^[4][5]: 93 A 2011 report by the Open Source Enterprise stated, "CICIR appears to have a close relationship with the University of International Relations in Beijing, with nearly half of the organization's senior leadership — including President Cui Liru and Director of the CICIR Institute of American Studies Yuan Peng — having either taught or studied at the school."^[6]

History

 

UIR main academic building

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 then Foreign Affairs College.^[7]

In 1964, then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered the creation of colleges and university departments to focus on international affairs.^[8] Several government agencies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, established their own institutes for the study of international affairs. The University of International Relations was formally affiliated with the Ministry of Public Security in 1965, and was charged with training intelligence agents for the Central Investigation Department (both predecessors to the MSS) and for Xinhua News Agency.^[7][8]

Like many schools in China, the University of International Relations was shuttered during China's Cultural Revolution and reopened in 1978.^[9]

 

UIR library

In 1983, the school became the first foreign studies institute in China to evolve into a comprehensive university.^[2][3] In 2021, UIR was accredited to confer doctoral degrees in politics and master's degrees in national security.^[10]

Affiliation

Despite claims from CCP sources that the University of International Relations operates under the direction of the Ministry of Education,^[11][12][13] the university does not appear on the Ministry of Education's list of subordinate universities, and every available academic source concludes that the university is an affiliate of the Ministry of State Security (MSS).^{[14][8][7][15][16][5][17]: 63  : 64, 72} Also, provincial government documents suggest that the UIR is affiliated with the MSS, mentioning it alongside Jiangnan Social University, a known MSS training institute.^[18] The university's campus is directly adjacent to the national headquarters of the MSS to the south and to the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to the west. According to Stratfor, "training for most MSS officers begins at the Beijing [campus of the] University of International Relations."^[19]

The Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence states that the university's "relationship with the MSS is intended to be covert".^[1] According to József Boda of Hungary's National University of Public Service, the "UIR gives the MSS a way to work with foreign universities and academics to shape and learn about perceptions of the PRC’s views on security. It also provides a platform for the MSS to identify talents, recruit officers and collect intelligence."^[20]

 

UIR gymnasium

Partnerships

The university maintains partnerships and exchanges with Marietta College,^[5] University of Massachusetts Boston, Aalborg University, Toulouse 1 University Capitole, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima City University, Ibaraki University, among others.^[14]

Notable alumni

• An Min, former Vice Minister of Commerce^[21]
• Du Wei, diplomat, former Chinese ambassador to Israel^[22]
• Liu Huan, artist, singer of the 2008 Summer Olympics theme song^[23]
• Ma Jun, environmentalist, non-fiction writer, and journalist^[24]
• Mei Feng, screenwriter, Prix du scénario (Best Screenplay Award) winner of 2009 Cannes Film Festival^[25]
• Qin Gang, China's 12th Minister of Foreign Affairs, the 11th Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States^[26]
• Wan Fan (scholar), President of China Foreign Affairs University^[27]
• Yan Xuetong, Director of the Institute of International Studies, Tsinghua University^[28]
• Zou Jiayi, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China, non-executive director of the board of directors of China Investment Corporation^[29]

See also

• China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations
• Jiangnan Social University
• Moscow State Institute of International Relations

References

1. Smith, I. C.; West, Nigel (May 4, 2012). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8108-7370-4. from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
2. "History of University of International Relations". University of International Relations. from the original on January 20, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
3. "中共中央关于增加全国重点高等学校的决定". Economic Daily (in Chinese). from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
4. [School of International Relations]. Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (in Chinese). November 5, 2020. Archived from the original on November 5, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2023. The school and the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations jointly train doctoral students majoring in international relations.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
5. Golden, Daniel (October 10, 2017). Spy Schools: How the CIA, FBI, and Foreign Intelligence Secretly Exploit America's Universities. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 85–95. ISBN 978-1-62779-636-1. OCLC 967864126.
6. "Profile of MSS-Affiliated PRC Foreign Policy Think Tank CICIR" (PDF). Federation of American Scientists. August 25, 2011. (PDF) from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
7. Chan, Gerald (1998). International Studies in China: An Annotated Bibliography. Nova Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56072-588-6. OCLC 923873469. from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
8. Shambaugh, David (2002). "China's International Relations Think Tanks: Evolving Structure and Process". The China Quarterly. 171 (171): 575–596. doi:10.1017/S0009443902000360. ISSN 0305-7410. JSTOR 4618770. S2CID 154801635.
9. Barnett, A. Doak (July 11, 2019). The Making Of Foreign Policy In China: Structure And Process. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-30316-2. OCLC 1108547701. from the original on August 24, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
10. "国际关系学院获批成为博士学位授予单位" (in Chinese). 国际关系学院新闻网. November 10, 2021. from the original on August 10, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.
11. , University of International Relations
12. 季晓旭 (September 17, 2019). "国际关系学院". China Education News Network. from the original on November 4, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
13. . Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. Archived from the original on June 13, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
14. "University of International Relations". Australian Strategic Policy Institute. from the original on November 27, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
15. Wise, David (June 14, 2011). Tiger Trap: America's Secret Spy War with China. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0-547-55487-7. OCLC 759835935.
16. Mattis, Peter L. (August 29, 2012). "Assessing Western Perspectives on Chinese Intelligence". International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. 25 (4): 678–699. doi:10.1080/08850607.2012.678745. ISSN 0885-0607. S2CID 154919371.
17. Joske, Alex (2022). Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World. Melbourne: Hardie Grant. ISBN 9781743589007.
18. Zhejiang Provincial Human Resource Department, Public Security Department, and National Security Department (June 23, 1997). [Notice on the recruitment of the people's police from the fresh graduates of the public security and security system colleges and universities]. Ningbo City Human Resources and Social Security Bureau (in Chinese). Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Fresh graduates of police colleges and universities affiliated to the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Security (including teachers' public security professional courses of Northeast Normal University and forensic majors in West China, Zhongshan, Xi'an and China Medical University, as well as graduates of the School of International Relations and Jiangnan School of Sociology under the Ministry of National Security) and the provincial public security and national security system police colleges Graduates entering the provincial public security and state security organs must implement examination and recruitment methods. Those who pass the examination and examination can be hired as the people's police.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
19. "Espionage with Chinese Characteristics". Stratfor. April 24, 2010. from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
20. Boda, József (November 11, 2022). "The Situation of National Security Studies: A Short Overview". Nemzetbiztonsági Szemle. National University of Public Service. 10 (3): 13–24. doi:10.32561/nsz.2022.3.2. ISSN 2064-3756. S2CID 253876097.
21. "中华人民共和国商务部副部长安民". Ministry of Commerce (China) (in Chinese). 商务部人事司. December 30, 2004. from the original on November 10, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
22. "中国驻以大使杜伟意外去世，母校国际关系学院刊文沉痛悼念". The Paper (in Chinese). May 18, 2020. from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
23. "刘欢". China News Service (in Chinese). from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
24. "2020年最具影响力前沿先锋候选人物之马军 - 生态中国网". Ministry of Ecology and Environment (in Chinese). from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
25. "梅峰：关于《不成问题的问题》的问题" (in Chinese). Sohu. March 30, 2017. from the original on November 8, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
26. "Ambassador Qin Gang". US-China Business Council. November 2, 2021. from the original on December 30, 2022. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
27. 储舒婷 (September 15, 2022). "外交部直属"双一流"高校，迎来新院长！". Wenhui Bao (in Chinese). Shanghai United Media Group. from the original on November 14, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
28. "阎学通". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. from the original on November 12, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
29. "邹加怡任财政部副部长、党组成员(图/简历) [Zou Jiayi Appointed Finance Vice Minister and Party Committee Member (Picture/CV)]". People's Daily (in Chinese). June 12, 2018. from the original on September 17, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2020.

External links

• Official website   (in Chinese)