One of the recent protests held in china / web
Students in China, often described as an apolitical generation conforming to Beijing’s patriotic upbringing, broke with this stereotype and took on a major role in recent demonstrations in the country.
At the end of November, what began as vigils for the victims of a deadly building fire led to protests in Chinese cities and universities, demanding an end to anti-covid measures and obtaining more political freedoms.
“Freedom of expression”
“Freedom of expression, democracy, rule of law”, shouted the students of the prestigious Tsinghua University in the capital, while at Peking University the walls were filled with anti-government slogans.
On other campuses, numerous students held up blank sheets of paper symbolizing their rejection of the country’s censorship.
“I think the student participation is a symbol of peace because it suggests that (…) young people still have a social conscience and political potential, and they want and are capable of changing the current circumstances,” said a Tsinghua protester.
Patriots, but with desires
Some of the social changes of the 20th century in China were already spearheaded by students. In 1919 they started the anti-imperialist May Fourth movement that brought about the political awakening of many future communist leaders.
And in 1989 they were the main promoters of the pro-democracy protests that ended with the bloody intervention of the army in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
But the current batch does not keep memories of that repression and from its birth it received a patriotic education, which led to defining it as less political than the previous ones.
“I think Chinese students today are much more knowledgeable about the world around them than is sometimes recognized,” said Wen-Ti Sung, a policy analyst at the Australian National University.
“They can be ‘liberal nationalists,’ patriotic, yes, but they also exhibit typical middle-class desires for civil liberties,” he added.
Covid zero policy
After the protests, the government abruptly abandoned its Covid-zero policy, in an apparent concession to public unrest.
Economic concerns and the fact that the virus was spreading rapidly despite the restrictions also weighed heavily in the decision.
The authorities quickly put down the protests with intimidation and arrests, but some believe the seeds of greater political awareness have been planted.
Although President Xi Jinping has tried since 2012 to stifle activism at universities, Marxist students in 2018 helped organize factory strikes in southern China, which were eventually suppressed.
And this year, the images and slogans used in many of the demonstrations were born in art schools and spread to the country’s elite universities.
This new generation, with their digital savvy and ability to bypass internet firewalls, are “fantastic protest drivers,” Sung said.
“Very sad and angry”
Students were among the hardest hit by China’s anti-covid measures: classes went online, campus visits were banned, trips home required written permission, and many exams were delayed.
In the Covid test centers of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, the graffiti “Give me back my youth” appeared in November, a reflection of the prevailing mood among the students.
“Everyone has felt very sad and angry. All these things have been cooking for a long time,” said Ting Guo, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in a recent podcast.
“These emotions tie all these social differences together to what we are witnessing today,” he added.
For Guo’s colleague, Diana Fu, these protests “reflect a consensus among Gen Z that it is time to express dissent.”
“They show that patriotic education has not completely erased the yearning for freedom,” he said.
After the easing of the zero Covid policy, sporadic protests have continued to appear in centers such as Wuhan University, whose students are prohibited from returning home.
Last week, medical students from Jiangsu and Sichuan called for better wages and conditions, especially now that they are on the front lines of the fight against the resurgence of Covid.
“Maybe the impact of the protests is that everyone realized that they can start acting and take a small first step,” said the Tsinghua student.
