In China, students are demonstrating against the confinement of their university

If it appears that the time has come for a very slow and gradual reopening, the daily lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese are still marked by health restrictions. Students demonstrated against the confinement of their university in eastern China, according to videos posted Tuesday, December 6, on Chinese social networks.

These videos provided by Agence France-Presse (AFP) show a crowd of students from Nanking Technology University pretending to be able to leave the campus. “Your strength comes from the students, not from yourselves.”shouts one of the participants to the director. “Be at the service of the students!” » A third-year student, who declined to be identified, told AFP that the protest erupted after the school announced the closure of the campus for five days after a positive case was discovered.

The video shows students arguing with university officials. “If you touch us, the new Foxconn will be here!”yells a young man, referring to violent demonstrations by workers last month at the Chinese factory of the Taiwanese giant, which makes iPhones for Apple.

Gradual loosening

Many cities are gradually relaxing their “zero Covid” strategy after large protests in late November, while many Chinese universities have been closed under the health policy. Their students must apply to leave and visitors are prohibited.

According to Nomura Bank’s calculations, 53 cities, accounting for about a third of China’s population of 1.4 billion, still had some form of travel restrictions in place as of Monday.

In the wake of the large demonstrations at the end of November in twelve cities against the zero Covid policy, the authorities strengthened the police presence and monitored social networks. During the rallies at the end of November, the demonstrators, mostly young people, demanded the lifting of restrictions that have affected their lives and projects since 2020. Since then several hundred, if not thousands, students have demonstrated on their university campuses, from a prestigious university in Tsinghua to institutions in Xi’an (center), canton (south) or Wuhan (center).

In parallel with the repressive component, the authorities have since eased some restrictions. The city of Beijing announced on Tuesday that office buildings and businesses, including supermarkets, will no longer be required to submit a negative PCR test. Many other major cities, such as Shanghai or Hangzhou, have also reduced their testing requirements.