Latest news with #Jiangyou
Bloomberg
7 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Rare China Protest Reveals Resistance to Xi's Frontline Officers
President Xi Jinping relies on legions of local officials to govern China's 1.4 billion people. A rare protest over the brutal attack of a schoolgirl has inflamed concerns over their credibility. Hundreds poured onto streets in Jiangyou, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, one night last week accusing authorities of being too lenient on the attackers. Within hours, videos of residents clashing with baton-wielding police dominated Chinese social media, as the incident neared the top of Weibo's trending chart and circulated in private WeChat groups before state censors finally swept in.
The Guardian
08-08-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
How a teenage bullying incident spiralled into city-wide protests in China
It started as an unpleasant, although not uncommon, teenage bullying incident. On 2 August, a video appeared online, showing a group of teenage girls kicking, slapping and mocking another girl, later revealed to be aged 14, in an abandoned building in Jiangyou, a small city of 730,000 in south-west China. According to the local police, the attack, which took place on 22 July, resulted in minor injuries to the girl's scalp and knees. The video went viral in the local community, and soon morphed into a large-scale protest that overwhelmed the streets of Jiangyou, featuring violent clashes with the police and a concerted effort by the authorities to stop news of the event from spreading. So what was it about this incident that prompted hundreds, perhaps even 1,000, people to gather in the streets of Jiangyou on Monday evening? The answer may lie in a potent mixture of years of frustration at how bullying cases are handled in China, a lack of trust in local authorities, and the sometimes brutal police tactics used to suppress dissent and criticism. One video from the scene of the protest, verified by the Guardian, is illustrative. People can be heard chanting: 'Give us back democracy, reject bullying, serve the people.' They also sing the Chinese national anthem. Kevin Slaten, who runs China Dissent Monitor, a project tracking unrest in China, said the call for democracy was more likely referring to local handling of the incident rather than nationwide regime change. Other footage shows violent clashes between police and protesters. In one confrontation, a man stands between an elderly woman who is arguing with several police officers. 'What are you going to do? Are you going to drag the old person away?' he shouts. Several uniformed police and riot officers then grab him, holding him in a headlock, before dragging him away by his arms and legs. Another video shows a riot officer hitting someone who is pinned to the ground. The Jiangyou police department did not answer the phone when called by the Guardian. Early on Monday, the Jiangyou police issued a statement saying that three of the alleged bullies, aged 13, 14 and 15, had been apprehended, and that the two older girls would be sent to 'specialised schools for correctional education'. For people in Jiangyou, this was not enough to quell the anger. The parents of the victim went to a local government office, kowtowing at the feet of a local official, and begged for justice. Already, there was a crowd of onlookers. More people soon gathered in the conference hall of the Jiangyou city government building to vent their frustration at what was perceived as an unduly lenient punishment. By Monday evening, the anger had swelled. Hundreds of people took to the streets outside the government building. Police barricades were erected along the streets. One person who works in a business near the scene of the protest estimated that about 1,000 people turned up. One eye-witness told the Guardian that they saw at least eight people being arrested, and that the situation escalated when the police barricades were removed at about 11.30pm on Monday. The witness said the protests got heated because of a feeling that the punishment was too light and rumours that one of the bullies had been seen playing billiards rather than being in the correctional centre. 'This sparked anger among the crowd, who gathered to demand an explanation,' the witness said, adding that they had seen the police using batons. 'Now people will definitely hate violent law enforcement,' they said. School bullying is a heated topic in China, with many feeling that not enough is done to protect students. In 2023, thousands of people protested in Henan after the death of a 14-year-old. The boy's school said the cause of death was suicide, but his parents and local citizens suspected foul play In Jiangyou, the scale of the anger may also reflect a more generalised distrust of the authorities, said Slaten. There is a 'lack of trust at the local level in the way that these cases are handled,' Slaten said. 'People feel there's a lot of injustice. They feel indignation about the way that authorities, in this case the school and the police, were handling this case. 'And the authorities, as people start to push for handling it differently, and these protests get more intense, they start cracking down on the protesters, and that only makes them more indignant about the response of the government.' Slaten said the cycle of a protest about a specific grievance spiralling into a wider action against local authorities was 'something that is seen quite often' in China. By Tuesday morning, the authorities turned their attention towards controlling the narrative. The hashtag for 'Jiangyou' briefly topped Weibo's trending topics chart, according to China Digital Times, a website that tracks the Chinese internet. But comments and videos were soon censored, while posts promoting the official version of events flooded social media searches. On Tuesday, Chinese media reported that two adults surnamed Ding and Yang had been punished by the public security authorities for 'fabricating rumours to attract attention' about the incident. The crackdown on people talking about the incident was also enforced offline. One woman who works in a shop near the local government building told the Guardian that she was not allowed to talk about the incident because 'the police have already given us a verbal warning'. Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu and Lillian Yang
South China Morning Post
07-08-2025
- South China Morning Post
Police deployed in China to stop teen bullying case protest
For more on this story: Police Swat teams were deployed in southwestern China in early August after a protest erupted over authorities' handling of a school bullying case the previous month. According to footage posted online, the protest happened on August 4 in the Sichuan city of Jiangyou.
New York Times
07-08-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Why a Teen Bullying Case in China Set Off Protests and a Crackdown
A widely shared video clip of a 14-year-old girl being beaten, kicked and tormented by other teenagers set off large protests in southwestern China, with hundreds of residents accusing officials of letting the perpetrators off too lightly. What began as a local outcry over school bullying in the city of Jiangyou, in Sichuan Province, escalated into a broader confrontation with the authorities. The police responded to the rallies with a forceful crackdown late on Monday, captured by residents in photos and footage. Residents had demanded justice for the bullying victim and protested the police's use of heavy-handed tactics, saying it was suffocating their right to voice grievances. 'No to bullying,' residents chanted as rows of police officers stood nearby, according to one video that was shared widely on social media and verified by The New York Times. 'Give us back democracy,' they also shouted. The footage of the tense standoffs with the police also spread across China, where large protests are somewhat rare, before they were removed from social media. The viral clip of the bullying showed the assailants taking the 14-year old to an empty, unfinished building where they kicked, slapped and pummeled her as she knelt. The video prompted widespread outrage online, where many expressed concern about bullying and the need for accountability. On Monday, the Jiangyou police issued a statement saying that it had investigated the incident, which it said took place on July 22. Two of the attackers were ordered to attend a correctional school, according to the statement, and they also faced up to 15 days in detention, Chinese news reports said, citing officials. The third girl and other onlookers were let off with warnings. The parents of the victim complained that the punishment was too light. They took their grievances to the Jiangyou city government headquarters, where dozens, and then hundreds, of residents gathered to support them. Many were incensed because they believed that the parents of the girl who was beaten were disadvantaged; her mother was deaf, according to Chinese news reports. Tensions rose as the police tried to break up the crowd. 'Are you going to drag her away?' a man yelled at a police officer who appeared set to remove an older woman. The officer shouted at the man: 'Do you want to get dragged away?' The crowd erupted in anger as the officers tackled the man and hauled him off. The videos were scrubbed from Chinese internet sites, but some were shared with online accounts outside China. Protests are not uncommon in China, but the ones in Jiangyou stood out because they grew larger than most and generated footage and images and intense nationwide attention, said Kevin Slaten, the research lead for the China Dissent Monitor, which collects data on unrest in China by scouring social media. Many protests in China are about unpaid wages or housing problems, such as apartments that people have paid for but remain unfinished. But school safety issues, such as bullying, have also been a source of public anger, Mr. Slaten said. By calling for 'democracy,' the protesters in Jiangyou most likely meant a broad demand for justice and fair treatment, Mr. Slaten said. 'It can often be that, like we saw in Jiangyou, the protesters become more motivated when the authorities ramp up repression and the people feel even more indignation,' he said. Still, the residents who protested in Jiangyou also sought to show that they were patriotic citizens trying to work within, not against, the system. The beaten girl's parents appeared to get on their hands and knees to beg an official for his attention, some videos showed. At night, the protesters sang the national anthem while they faced off against police officers holding riot shields. Acts like prostrating were 'part of a longstanding cultural tradition in China where subjects petition benevolent officials to restore justice,' said Diana Fu, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who studies protest and dissent in China. By singing China's national anthem, she added, the residents appeared to be 'giving a nod to the central authorities' rule while also sardonically mocking local authorities.' By late Monday, the local authorities appeared to move in with greater force to break up the demonstrations. Phalanxes of police on foot pushed into the crowd, tackling people and dragging them away. Online comments in China about the unrest were largely removed. A woman in a shop near the Jiangyou government office who answered a call from the Times on Thursday said she did not know anything about the protests and hung up. Joy Dong in Hong Kong contributed reporting.
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Yahoo
Protests in China over bullying after viral footage shows classmates beating and humiliating teen
A school bullying incident in China's Sichuan province sparked public outrage and protests after a viral video showed three female students beating and humiliating a 14-year-old classmate. Authorities sent two of the attackers to correctional school for assaulting and verbally abusing the teenager, but many citizens criticised the punishment as too lenient, especially after reports revealed the girl had faced bullying for a long time and her deaf mother had repeatedly pleaded for help. One of the attackers allegedly claimed that she had been detained by police over 10 times and always walked free within 20 minutes, further inflaming public anger. On Monday, nearly 1,000 people gathered outside local government offices in Jiangyou in Sichuan province to protest and clashed with police. Footage showed officers using batons and electric prods, injuring several protesters. A video verified to have been filmed outside the city hall showed police – both in blue uniforms and plainclothes – forcibly pulling two people aside, including a woman in a black dress who was dragged away by her limbs. 'They are sweeping away citizens everywhere,' a person was heard saying as the woman was taken away. In a video shared by Yesterday BigCat, a YouTube channel documenting protests in China, a demonstrator angrily recalled one of the attackers boasting she had been detained multiple times before and released without consequence. Police said the teen's beating, which happened last month and left her with several bruises on the scalp and knees, was filmed and shared online by bystanders. Many citizens condemned the punishment as too lenient. 'The sentence is too light,' a comment on Chinese social media site Weibo read, 'that is why they were so arrogant.' 'The penalty for causing minor injuries is too mild, while the physical and mental trauma suffered by victims is overlooked by the law, which leads to a significant imbalance in the protection of their rights,' the BBC quoted a Shanghai lawyer as writing on Weibo. Authorities denied online rumours the attackers were daughters of powerful officials and punished two individuals for spreading misinformation, according to the Guardian. 'Two of the parents are unemployed, two are working outside the province, one is a local salesperson, and one is a local delivery driver,' police said in a statement, refuting the rumours. In 2023, protests erupted in Shangqiu in Henan province after a 14-year-old boy died under suspicious circumstances. While his school claimed suicide, his parents alleged he had been physically assaulted. That incident added to growing concern over school bullying in China. That same year, authorities vowed to crack down on bullying after a court sentenced a teenage boy to life in prison for killing a classmate he had allegedly bullied for a long time.
