Beijing concerned over student’s protest against expensive canteens
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – When 18 thousand students from Guangdong Polytechnic University “deserted” the canteen on September 17th, they only aimed to protest the sudden price hike. But it has become a case of national concern and the authorities have ordered press silence on the issue, in mass media and internet.
It all began when in the second week after students returned from their summer holidays, Guangdong college canteens raised prices by half a Yuan or even one Yuan when they used to be only 1.5 or 2 Yuan each. Guangdong University of Technology student Fang Lan told the South China Morning Post the average annual income of her family, who live in the poor western mountain region of Guangdong, was only 3,000 to 4,000 Yuan, and her annual fees were about 6,600 Yuan. She had found a part-time job as a tutor to help support herself, “now I have to spend another several hundred Yuan a year for food, and I am scared the prices will keep increasing”.
In protest a group of students put a boycott notice on the online instant message system and in chat rooms. It is estimated more than 18,000 students, nearly two-thirds of the student body, had heeded the boycott call. Other students confirmed that most of those who ate in the canteens that day were first-year students doing their month-long military training who had no idea of where else to eat. While students made up the bulk of the participants, others also joined the protest. The 10 universities in the city have more than 150,000 students each. Authorities at the school and the provincial government were shocked by the success of the protest and authorities from Guangdong’s propaganda office have “banned” all news of the boycott from being reported. Two weeks after the boycott, all links related to the key words "Guangdong University Town, No-Canteens" searched through Baidu or Google were empty, carrying notices such as, "the content you are looking for has been deleted”.
Students report that the evening of the protest the school held a meeting with all student Communist Party members and leaders, urging them to bring two non-student party members to eat in the canteens in the next few days. The school also ordered that from the next day, all students had to register with their class monitors after eating in the canteens. Schools ordered all canteens to freeze prices and to provide food of a quality and quantity equal to before the price rises; because this means the canteens are now losing money, they were promised subsidies reducing the rent, management fees and water and electricity fees. Schools have also started to provide temporary subsidies to students, especially poor ones.
The authorities are concerned by the rapidity with which the protests were organised, with instant messages posted on the internet, which leave no trace. Particularly if students use University computers, making the organisers impossible to trace.
Yuan Weishi , a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, said the central government would be paying particular attention to the students' actions because of the Communist Party's 17th National Congress later this month “The student strike will threaten social stability, which is one of the government's biggest concerns”.
.png)
18/05/2021 15:30
