(Minghui.org) Hubei University of Science and Technology (HUST) is a four-year college located in Xianning City, Hubei Province. Before the Chinese Communist Party launched a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong in July 1999, the university hosted a Falun Gong exercise site on its campus. After the persecution began, the university turned against Falun Gong. This report covers the school’s recent participation in the persecution.

Since Yan Yingzi (+86-8907240018, +86-715-8151118) became the university’s CCP Secretary in January 2021, she has forced every student to sign a pledge every winter and summer promising to not participate in any “cult activities.” While the pledge did not mention Falun Gong explicitly, it is well known that the main pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners is that they “use a cult organization to undermine law enforcement.”

Since spring 2025, three faculty members, including professor Yan Qin in the college of foreign languages, Dr. Li Mincai (who ran a pathology lab), and professor Zheng Guanghua in the department of medical imaging, have been barred from teaching by Yan Yingzi, university disciplinary secretary Yan Wenjun, as well as three people from the Anti-cult Brigade of the Anti-Terrorism Brigade in Xian’an District, including captain Song Jun, team lead Kan, and political secretary Xu Fuming.

On February 17, 2025, the Xianning City Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the Xianning City Police Department jointly issued a notice titled “Interim Measures for Rewarding Reporting of the Illegal and Criminal Activities of Cult Organizations.” The two agencies, together with the Xian’an District Police Department and the Xianning City United Front Work Department, held a carnival-themed event titled “Promoting Science, Opposing Cults” at the university on September 30, 2025. The event targeted freshmen students, who were all required to sign a big, red banner.

On December 10, 2025, these government agencies launched a campaign at the university to conduct “Anti-Cult and National Security Education in Colleges and Universities.” The school forced all students to read propaganda bulletin boards, banners, and brochures. The students were also made to sign banners and follow the social media account of China’s Anti-cult Organization.

On February 26, 2026, Lu Shejie (+86-715-8102965, +86-15872845520), director of the university’s IT department, issued a campus-wide “Notice on Standardizing the Use of Campus Networks,” prohibiting students, faculty, and staff from using firewalls to access overseas websites. Lu is an AI expert and senior engineer who has a doctoral degree in Information Security from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

This notice came about after the Ministry of State Security discovered several thousands of incidents of HUST students and employees using firewalls in recent years. They instructed the Hubei Province Education Bureau to take actions. The Bureau in turn ordered the university to impose restrictions. Its IT department then issued above notice. The notice also stated that all students and employees’ internet usage data would be automatically kept for 18 months to aid in any future investigation.

On April 3, 2026, the Wenquan Police Station suddenly came to inspect the university’s labs. According to an insider, the police connected the surveillance cameras in the lab buildings to their own system. This way the police could monitor Falun Gong practitioners who work there without having to set foot on campus.

On April 16, 2026, the university issued a notice requiring all students and employees to use their IDs and the last six digit of their cell phone numbers to log into the campus network. They must also update their log-in every 15 hours; otherwise they would not be able to continue using the campus network on their phones.

On April 20, 2026, the university issued another notice requiring every employee to register their computer information, including the users and the physical location of the machine, the computer hardware type, brand, model, hard drive serial number, and Ethernet physical address (a unique 48-bit identifier assigned to a network interface controller by the manufacturer).