Tsinghua University, one of the best in China and where leader Xi Jinping himself graduated, recorded a very rare protest against Covid control measures this Sunday (27).
Bringing together traditional engineering, math and science programs, Tsinghua has always been seen as adhering to the regime and a counterpoint to Peking University, where protests are more common.
The spontaneous demonstration began when a student raised a blank sign, silently, in front of the institution’s main cafeteria. Colleagues joined her, and the protest attracted at least 400 people, according to witnesses at the scene. Many left the cafeteria, open for lunch, to join the act.
The students sang the Chinese anthem and the Socialist International, the anthem of the Soviet Union. Protesters chanted slogans — in one of the videos that circulated on social media before being censored, some are seen saying “this is happening in China is not normal, we are tired”, while others say they are willing to “sacrifice everything for more political freedom”.
THE Sheet, the student who started the protest says that, when she thought about the demonstration, she did not even share the idea with her friends, as she feared that they might suffer consequences for their actions. But she was positively surprised by the adherence of her university colleagues.
She, who asked that her name not be disclosed, says that not all of the group’s demands, obviously, are the same, but that there are many repressed demands that must be expressed together.
The gesture in Tsinghua echoed other protests seen across the country this weekend after a fire killed at least 10 people in Urumqi, one of the biggest cities in western China’s Xinjiang province. They would have been trapped in the building engulfed in flames due to barriers installed by sanitary agents to isolate the unit and prevent residents from leaving their homes during the quarantine.
Around 1 pm local time, Tsinghua sent the deputy secretary of the Communist Party Committee at the institution, Guo Yong, to talk to the protesters. He asked the students holding the signs to leave, but they refused. The university only managed to disperse the protest two hours later, promising to organize a seminar to listen to the students’ demands and not administratively pursue those who participated in the act.
The university student, however, doubts that this will happen. She says she believes that even if they promise in writing they won’t harass students, authorities will eventually do so. According to other students, there are vehicles patrolling the campus, and security guards have been working overtime, increasing by at least three times the usual contingent.
Despite the institution having promised not to investigate the demonstrators, students who attended the protest reported to the Sheet that some were called by their tutors to “have some tea”. The expression is a euphemism used by police authorities for interrogations.
The student, however, claims to be prepared for possible consequences. She says she feels a responsibility to act as she observes what she describes as suffering in her country and is inspired to protest by the responsibility to somehow honor the 10 people killed in the Xinjiang fire.
On Monday morning (28) local time, a group of Tsinghua alumni released an open letter, addressed to the university’s leadership, demanding that professors assume “a clear written commitment on behalf of the university that they will not make any accusations against students who participated in this demonstration”.
They also ask that the student not have her education penalized or be the target of “unreasonable treatment inside or outside the university”.
Peking University students also released a written manifesto calling for an immediate end to cell phone monitoring, mass testing and social media censorship. They demanded the creation of a coexistence plan with the coronavirus that guarantees social order and minimizes the economic impact on society.
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