China's Education Ministry has ordered the country's colleges and universities to stop Oxfam from recruiting volunteers on campuses, saying the international relief charity has a hidden political agenda, the Times reports.

In a notice to schools earlier this month, the government said Oxfam Hong Kong, which oversees the British charity's operations on the mainland, was "seeking to infiltrate our interior" and branded the chapter's chairman, Lo Chi-kin, a "stalwart of the opposition faction."

Oxfam has been running an internship program to place Chinese students with nonprofit organizations for four years. A spokesman for the charity said it has experienced no problems in that time and that the government move "came as a complete surprise."