Following a weekend protest at the school, administrators at a top Beijing university have backed down from plans to further tighten student restrictions as part of China’s “zero COVID-19” goal, students said on Tuesday.
Graduate students at Peking University protested on Sunday against the school’s decision to install a sheet-metal wall to further isolate them on campus while allowing instructors to freely come and go.
Dissatisfaction had already been building due to laws barring them from ordering food or having visitors, as well as daily COVID-19 testing.
In recent weeks, a citywide lockdown in Shanghai and increasing restrictions in Beijing have prompted concerns about the economic and human consequences of China’s rigorous viral controls, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said is a success in comparison to other major nations.
People have complained individually or publicly, and some Shanghai residents have battled with police, volunteers, and others attempting to enforce lockdowns and transport people to quarantine centres.
Many Peking University students taking smartphone films as Chen Baojian, the deputy secretary of the university’s CCP committee, ordered them through a megaphone to halt the demonstration and speak with him one-on-one.
“Please put down your mobile phones, protect Peking University,” Chen said, to which one student yelled: “Is that protection? How about our rights and interests?”
As a half-dozen protestors smashed past the sheet-metal barrier behind Chen, the crowd of approximately 200 applauded and roared.
The phone videos were posted on social media before being taken down by government censors.
Some supporting comments have persisted, though many have been removed, and some videos have remained on Twitter, which is forbidden in China.
“Peking University students are great,” one person wrote on Chinese social media. “Fight for rights. A single spark can start a prairie fire.”
Peking University is one of a few elite universities that have played key roles in political movements such as the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution and the 1989 pro-democracy rallies in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, which were suppressed by the army.
Following the demonstration on Sunday, university authorities met with student representatives and decided to dismantle the sheet-metal barrier, according to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday.
One graduate student who took part in the demonstration, who did not want her identity published owing to potential repercussions, stated that the wall was removed shortly after and that other concessions were made.
“We achieved our goals Sunday night,” the student said.
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