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BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese university's plan to conduct a blanket search of student and staff electronic devices has come under fire, illustrating the limits of the population's tolerance for surveillance.
It is also raising the prospect that tactics used on Muslim minorities may be creeping into the rest of the country.
The Guilin University of Electronic Technology is now reconsidering a search of cellphones, computers, external hard disks and USB drives after a copy of the order leaked online and triggered such an intense backlash that it drew rare criticism in state-run newspapers.
Searches of electronics are common in Xinjiang in China's far west, a restive region that has been turned into a virtual police state. They are unheard of in most other areas.
That's why the planned checks worry some.
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