China: On the Covid frontline, medical students demand better pay

A Chinese health worker dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic in Beijing on December 14, 2022 (illustration photo).

AFP - YUXUAN ZHANG

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

In China, the Covid wave accelerated by the lifting of health restrictions.

Hospitals are under pressure.

And in this context, medical students are protesting.

They want to go on leave or better wages.

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With our correspondent in Beijing,

Decidedly, the demonstrations pay, in China.

For the second time in less than a month, a social movement is getting a response from the authorities other than strict repression.

Protests took place in several cities across the country, from Jiangxi in the southeast to Sichuan in the west.

Three main demands among these young interns called to the front line of the battle against the epidemic: first better protection against the disease, then the possibility of taking leave, finally for those who must stay, to be better paid.

Equal pay, equal work!

Demonstration of medical students in Sichuan (western China): for equal work, equal pay!

https://t.co/gkrQQuBqGN

— Stephane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) December 11, 2022

This slogan " 

was heard in particular at Huaxi Medical University in Sichuan.

As with almost every student movement, the management did not believe their ears.

She went down to see the students, taking offense: “ 

“, which had already been heard in some establishments last month during demonstrations against the “zero Covid” policy.

But this reaction of the hierarchy did not change anything, quite the contrary, with the determination of the protesters.

Anger reinforced after the death of a 23-year-old intern victim of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, while he had been working for several days with a fever, according to Internet users, comments denied by the hospital.

To appease the spirits, a university in Nanjing has granted a stipend of 10,000 yuan (1,350 euros) to those who remain, according to the

.

The establishment also indicated that the Covid control and prevention measures were going to be “ 

”.

In Wuhan, Huazhong University of Science and Technology has decided to let students go on winter vacation.

This does not solve the problem of Chinese hospitals facing an unprecedented Covid-19 tsunami, which affects patients and staff alike.

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