According to a “Secret China” website report, during the current holiday season in China, some mainland China universities restricted students who demonstrated “aggressive patriotic behavior” during the recent boycott against Carrefour.
Many mainland universities issued an urgent notice at noon April 30, requiring these students to stay on campus during the holiday season starting May 1, and whoever breaches the regulation will be severely punished.
Although students can apply for leave under this urgent “regulation,” many reported that no leave requests have been approved.
Internet Discussions Call for Student Violence
It is estimated that recent widespread Internet discussions triggered the authorities to take this urgent action. Many student discussions over the Internet called for a continuation of the boycott of Carrefour and other violent actions, such as attacking cars or robbing Carrefour during the holiday.
Secret China also reported that students suspect that their university may even require house arrest for some of the “aggressive students,” because some of them suddenly disappeared. Their teachers refused to put any effort into finding them, to tell them “not to go demonstrate again, you should have a better understanding of what kind of society it is now.”
According to the Guangzhou Information Times report on April 30, the Guangzhou Municipal Education Department issued an urgent notice to cancel all large elementary and primary school assemblies during the May 1 holiday season because the Olympics Torch is going to reach Guangzhou soon.
Manipulating the Masses
Regarding the above events, former associate professor of Nanjing Normal University, Guo Quan commented that the communist regime just uses the common people as its tools. It instigates people’s patriotic sentiment when it wants to use it to resist international criticism on its massacre in Tibet, then suppresses it when it achieves its goal. Otherwise, people’s anger may backfire against the regime.
Professor Sun Wenguang from Shandong University also believes that the regime is worried that people who oppose the regime may also take to the streets if Carrefour boycott activities develop, causing those students’ “aggressive patriotic behavior” to possibly hurt the general public. This could also lead to people’s anger turning toward the regime.
Besides, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre is around the corner (June 4), and the regime doesn’t want to see a mass movement during this period.
