'Even if the current events are very focused on specific grievances, such as measures over lockdown, they will be treated seriously by the leadership.' 'Its students are the most elitist in the country and include a high percentage of offspring of senior cadres,' he told AFP. Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said Peking University is a politically important institution and the government would 'react swiftly and strongly to put an end to protests (there) before they can gather momentum'. 'Today we witnessed Peking University students' tradition of struggle rise from the ashes,' read one post. Peking University was also the birthplace of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The incident was rapidly censored on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform, where many evoked memories of the country's May 4 movement - mass protests by students in 1919. When contacted by AFP the university said it was not a protest but 'just students expressing their demands'. On Monday AFP reporters saw two police vans parked outside a quiet campus. Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said Peking University is a politically important institution and the government would 'react swiftly and strongly to put an end to protests (there) before they can gather momentum' It comes as Beijing on Sunday extended guidance to work from home in four districts of the Chinese capital, including the largest, Chaoyang, as authorities there desperately attempt to stick to the zero-Covid policy. Locked-down students were already confined to just one part of the campus, banned from receiving visitors and tested daily, but new restrictions forced them to remain in their dorms and banned food deliveries. In Beijing - which has reported more than 1,000 infections in recent weeks - most restaurants and public spaces have been shut and millions face daily testing and working from home.Īnger boiled over at the weekend at Peking University after the school tried to impose tight new movement restrictions.

Hundreds of students at an elite Beijing university have protested against strict Covid-19 curbs on campus in a rare show of defiance as anger mounts over virus controls.Ĭhina is the only major country adhering to a rigid zero-Covid policy and its restrictions have prompted frustration with lockdowns, spartan quarantine facilities and heavy handed enforcement.

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