"Freedom will triumph": Beijing students sing the Internationale

The burgeoning protests against the Chinese government's zero-Covid strategy are spreading: in addition to Urumqi and Shanghai, students from Tsinghua University in Beijing are now also raising their voices - and singing against the state's repression.

"Freedom will triumph": Beijing students sing the Internationale

The burgeoning protests against the Chinese government's zero-Covid strategy are spreading: in addition to Urumqi and Shanghai, students from Tsinghua University in Beijing are now also raising their voices - and singing against the state's repression.

Hundreds of students from the renowned Tsinghua University in the Chinese capital Beijing took part in a protest against corona lockdowns on Sunday, according to contributions in the online networks and according to eyewitnesses. A student at the elite university said students started protesting in the morning (local time). "Then more and more people came. Now there are 200 to 300 people here," said the eyewitness.

"We sang the national anthem and the International and chanted: 'Freedom will win'," the student continued. The Internationale is a global battle song of the socialist labor movement. Videos of the protests show students chanting "democracy, the rule of law and freedom of expression." They also hold up white sheets to symbolize the oppression by Chinese censorship.

Tsinghua University is one of the most prestigious universities in China. According to reports, students are currently not allowed to leave the campus due to the strict corona regulations, nor are they allowed to receive visitors. Despite the protests in the country, the Chinese leadership is sticking to a strict zero-Covid strategy.

There had previously been reports from eyewitnesses and videos published on online networks about protests in the Chinese economic metropolis of Shanghai in the early hours of Sunday morning and at other universities. The authorities quickly took action against the discussion about the protests on the Internet. After footage of the protests surfaced, they deleted posts related to the rallies from the online service Weibo.

Nevertheless, some videos were widely shared. In one of them, demonstrators on a central city street demanded the resignation of the Chinese president and a withdrawal of the Chinese Communist Party: "Xi Jinping, resign!" they shouted. The site of this demonstration, Wulumuqi Street in Shanghai, is named in Mandarin for the city of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region.

Ten people died and nine others were injured in a fire there on Thursday evening. This sparked a storm of outrage as many users blamed the ongoing coronavirus lockdown for hampering the rescue of residents from the fire. For example, many apartment doors were locked.