Zero-Covid in China: anger rumbles on campuses, demonstrations multiply

Anger is brewing in China, where numerous demonstrations took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday, November 27, following a deadly fire which caused the death of ten people confined to their building in Urumqi.

REUTERS - TINGSHU WANG

Text by: RFI Follow

3 mins

Anger is brewing in China, where numerous demonstrations took place on the night of Saturday to Sunday, November 27, following a deadly fire which caused the death of ten people confined to their building in Urumqi.

Students from several universities are protesting against the excesses of health policy. 

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With our correspondent in Beijing

,

"Long live the people, may the dead rest in peace!"

chanted the students

of the Nanjing Institute of Communication and Media.

In Beijing, students hung blue masks stained with red ink on the railings of the Film Academy's stairs.

At Harbin Agricultural University, messages in red characters are taped behind dormitory windows:

南京 传媒 学院 同学们 一起 点 亮 灯光！

高喊 高喊 “人民 岁 、 逝者 安息 安息 安息！

校长 安抚 了！ 怕 事态！！！！！！！！ pic.twitter.com/6ntks8qm0

— 新闻调查 (@xinwendiaocha) November 26, 2022

Contemplation also in Xi'an, or even in Wuhan, where students from the University of Technology in the capital of Hebei placed candles on the ground forming the numbers 11.24, again in memory of

, when flames spread from the 15th to the 17th floor of an apartment building in the capital of Xinjiang, killing 10 people and injuring 9. 

Tired youth

According to the initial investigation, the fire was started by a power strip in a bedroom of an apartment on the 15th floor.

State media claimed the building was classified as a low Covid risk area and therefore unconfined.

But

that

 videos posted online showed workers removing fences near the complex in front of fire trucks waiting to respond.

These images have circulated a lot, especially on the Douyin shared video platform, arousing an emotion on social networks similar to that which followed 

, two years ago, waking up a youth tired of repeated confinements on the campuses.  

Tributes are mostly silent due to censorship and risk.

In 2011, during the Arab Spring, calls to “ 

 ” were launched in the megacities of China, this time the students of Nanjing remain standing and motionless like statues holding white sheets, as during the demonstrations in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

Slogans against the CCP leadership

White sheets also brandished by a few dozen demonstrators in the street of Urumqi in Shanghai, with candles inviting to "

".

The images flooded WeChat messaging.

The latter were then joined after midnight by other protesters, some of whom remained until dawn chanting slogans against the excesses of the zero-Covid policy and against the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, in this young district. and connected to the economic capital of the country.

Beijing's PKU and Tsinghua University students are reportedly holding mass protests, calling for democracy, rule of law, and freedom of expression.

https://t.co/7RNj8boGzH

— Wen-Ti Sung (@wentisung) November 27, 2022

A thousand people were present, reports the correspondent of

in Shanghai, among the first journalists to arrive on the spot, in front of many policemen in yellow, apparently impassive.

Everyone is now waiting for the authorities' response.

Some universities in Beijing, probably to prevent the movement from gaining momentum, have decided to send their students back to their families for a very early vacation since the Lunar New Year holidays begin at the end of January this year.

" 

 ," wrote a user this morning.  

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