It’s still so easy to remember them, their eager teenage faces and smart uniforms, their distinctive, often comical English names – Athena, Gigi and Roxy for the girls, Zeus, Wolf and Tony Stark for the boys.
These were my Chinese students at the catchily titled People’s Public Security University of China (PPSUC) in Beijing, a training nerve centre for top police cadets – mostly men, with around 15 per cent women – recruited countrywide from Shanghai to Shangri-La.
If, heaven forbid, President Xi Jinping ever succeeds in following through his threat to ‘take back’ Taiwan, some of my graduates, especially those specialising in international affairs, might end up policing my new home.
China’s rampant militarisation is no secret. What was once restricted to the parade ground has now shifted to classrooms, with revised state laws now pushing for mandatory military service for high school pupils, drills for 12- to 15-year-olds and even some defence education for primary school kids.
As patriotic cadets, some of my students were convinced Taiwan would one day come under Chinese control (the democratic island has never, in fact, been part of the People’s Republic of China) and would be proud to police there, while most were less gung-ho in their global ambitions, hoping to simply serve their home states.