Death of student in China’s Shaanxi sparks mass protests, clashes

Authorities at a college in the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi have imposed three days of restrictions after the death of a student sparked mass protests on campus, as police insisted there was no foul play involved, according to social media footage and state media reports.

State media have also reported that local officials have investigated the death of a student at a vocational college following a “verbal and physical altercation” with a roommate, after thousands of angry citizens gathered outside the school, sparking clashes with police.

Officials in Shaanxi’s Pucheng county have launched a probe into the Jan. 2 death of a Pucheng Vocational Education Center student identified only by the surname Dang, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Jan. 6, after large crowds gathered a day earlier.

People in China frequently challenge those in power, despite pervasive surveillance, a "grid" system of law enforcement at the neighborhood level and a targeted "stability maintenance" system aimed at controlling critics of the government before they take action.

But public responses to official decisions are often swiftly erased from social media platforms, and those who take part warned off further speech or action.

Video clips uploaded to the X accounts “Mr. Li is not your teacher” and “DiplySync” showed large crowds of people chanting outside the school, and rocking an ambulance after the school’s vice principal hid in it, according to an accompanying post.

“[The victim’s] family suspected that the deceased had been bullied on campus and accused the school of concealing the truth,” according to a DiplySync post.

‘Verbal and physical altercation'

According to the CCTV report, Dang had gotten involved in a “verbal and physical altercation” at about 10 p.m. on Jan. 1 after he complained that two roommates were talking too loudly and stopping him from sleeping.

Dang reported his roommates to the college “political education department,” then returned to his dorm.

“At about 3 a.m. on Jan. 2, Huang, who shared a dormitory with Dang, found a wooden stool under the balcony window of the dormitory when he went to the toilet,” the report said.

“The sliding window was open and the mesh screen on the window had been removed. Dang was down below, outside,” it said.

Police determined that the student had “died from falling from a height,” and that no foul play was suspected, the report said.

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Now, the school is reportedly under “stability maintenance” measures, according to a copy of a notice to students leaked to the citizen journalist X account “Mr. Li is not your teacher.”

At least some students have “taken leave for personal reasons” in the wake of the protests, under strict instructions not to make further trouble for the authorities.

“We put forward clear requirements for students who are on leave at home for personal reasons ... to study at home and respect the three days of restrictions,” the notice, which RFA was unable to verify independently, said.

“Do not make contact with other students or members of the public to gather in the restricted area,” it said.

In a move that echoed the official response to the hanging death of teenager Hu Xinyu in February 2023, the notice warned students: “Do not speak publicly, do not post, comment on or like any related content on online platforms, and do not start, give credence to or spread rumors.”

The citizen journalist behind “Mr. Li is not your teacher” told RFA Mandarin that they post content that has been directly submitted by people on the ground, as well as content that has also appeared on other social media platforms.

The account noted in an X post on Tuesday that video from the Jan. 5 protests had largely disappeared from the video-sharing platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.