Foreign universities looking to set up joint ventures in China are being required to establish internal Communist party committees, the latest sign of Beijing tightening its ideological grip over all spheres of life in the country.

The directive, which took effect last year but whose existence is being revealed for the first time by the Financial Times, mandates foreign education institutions to include a clause that supports the establishment of a party organisation in any application to set up a joint-venture university, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“Compromise is necessary,” said one of the people, adding that applicants were pushing back by adding language to the clauses that limited party intervention to “the extent of the law and no more”.