Chinese University Students Sent Home Amid Protests

Chinese universities are sending students home as the ruling Communist Party tightens anti-virus controls and tries to prevent more protests after crowds angered by its severe “zero COVID” restrictions called for President Xi Jinping to resign in the biggest show of public dissent in decades.

With the police out in force, there was no word of protests Tuesday in Beijing, Shanghai or other major cities.

Some anti-virus restrictions were eased Monday in a possible effort to defuse public anger following the weekend protests in at least eight cities. But the ruling party affirmed its “zero COVID” strategy, which has confined millions of people to their homes in an attempt to isolate every infection.

Tsinghua University, Xi’s alma mater, where students protested Sunday, and other schools in Beijing and the southern province of Guangdong said they were protecting students from COVID-19. But dispersing them to far-flung hometowns also reduces the likelihood of more activism following protests at campuses last weekend.

Some universities arranged buses to take students to train stations. They said classes and final exams would be conducted online.

In Hong Kong, about 50 students from mainland China protested Monday at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in a show of support for people on the mainland. They lit candles and chanted, “No PCR tests but freedom!” and “Oppose dictatorship, don’t be slaves!”

The gathering and a similar one in Hong Kong’s business district were the biggest protests in the Chinese territory in more than a year under rules imposed to crush a pro-democracy movement.

On Monday, the city government of Beijing announced it would no longer set up gates to block access to apartment compounds where infections are found.

It made no mention of a fire last week in Urumqi that killed at least 10 people. That prompted angry questions online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls.

The Chinese president recently began a third, norm-breaking five-year term as Communist Party leader.

“This protest symbolizes the beginning of a new era in China … in which Chinese civil society has decided not to be silent and to confront tyranny,” Wang said at a Taipei news conference, warning that the authorities were likely to respond with “stronger force to violently suppress protesters.”