N Journal Report | Violent Conflict and "Foreign Forces" in the North China University Transfer Disturbance

In early June, a large-scale student protest broke out at Nanjing Normal University’s North China College, opposing the transformation of independent colleges into vocational undergraduate schools. During the protest, a large number of police blocked the campus and violent clashes broke out with students, resulting in several students being injured.

Several eyewitnesses told reporters that from June 7 to 8, the police beat students with batons, sprayed irritating liquids on them, and violently dragged some students away. At the same time, the police and the school checked students' mobile phones one by one, forcing them to delete photos, videos and related online comments of the conflict, and took students who actively spread information to the public security bureau for questioning.

"When I saw my classmates being dragged and beaten by the police, I burst into tears. I felt heartbroken. The trauma in my heart is permanent, but I can't do anything about it," said Lu Qiuzhen (pseudonym), a junior student at North China University of Technology, in an interview.

The local police , Danyang Public Security Bureau, issued a notice on June 8 saying that the public security organs were "besieged and cursed by students and obstructed law enforcement" when they were maintaining order. The reporter contacted the Danyang Public Security Bureau and the Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau to inquire about issues related to police violence, but their staff refused to respond.

The conflict was not limited to North China University of Political Science and Law. According to multiple media reports, since June 4, students from at least seven independent colleges in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanxi have gathered and protested, with clashes between police and citizens at some of the sites, with the most intense conflict occurring at North China University of Political Science and Law.

The conflict arose from the country's "independent college conversion" policy. Last year, the Ministry of Education required that some independent colleges of undergraduate institutions merge with higher vocational and technical colleges at the junior college level and convert them into "vocational and technical universities." On June 4 this year, the Ministry of Education announced that 13 independent colleges had begun to convert, among which Nanjing Normal University Zhongbei College will merge with Jiangsu Vocational and Technical College of Economics and Trade to form Nanjing Vocational and Technical University of Economics and Trade.

Since independent colleges are private secondary colleges of undergraduate universities, students believe that the merger and reorganization with junior colleges is equivalent to downgrading the diploma, and the academic qualifications are downgraded from "ordinary undergraduate" to "vocational undergraduate", which affects the scope of application for civil service examinations and postgraduate examinations and job hunting, so they expressed opposition. At the same time, students questioned the school's reorganization work for being opaque and non-public, and the fact that the merger objects and academic qualifications were not clarified during the initial investigation, and the students refused to communicate when they expressed their opposition later, so they gathered to protest and protect their rights.

This is one of the few large-scale student protests in China in more than a decade, and it accidentally hits the sensitive node of June 4th. They did not call for democracy and freedom, but just wanted to protect a piece of paper diploma. Even if the purpose of the protest is not a threat to the system, the instability of "group gathering" and "rights protection protest" cannot be tolerated in the current environment.

Human rights activist Badiucao commented, "It is commendable that mainland students can defend their rights and protest so bravely. They deserve our support!" He added that although the students protesting the relocation did not have the idealism of the June 4th students, they left the Internet, united in real life, and spoke out bravely in the face of power, which is an important accumulation of the domestic civil rights movement.

However, the wave of nationalism has brought new difficulties to the protest. On the Internet, the label of "foreign forces" has never been absent, forcing protesting students to voice out, "Don't post videos on the Internet" and "Don't accept interviews from foreign media." Many students repeatedly emphasized in interviews that they "don't oppose the major policy of state restructuring." Badiucao commented that this "life-saving" public opinion strategy has not worked. The arbitrary political death penalty by netizens and the powerful censorship of public power have made students lose their legitimacy and become enemies of the state apparatus.

Even if they just want to protect their diploma.

Event Backstory

Lu Qiuzhen said that on the afternoon of June 6, when Chang Qing, the president of North China University of Technology, walked out of the theater after watching the performance commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, more than 100 students surrounded him and "demanded an explanation" about the transfer.

The Danyang Public Security Bureau issued a notice stating that the students “illegally detained the dean and restricted his personal freedom for more than 30 hours” to prevent him from leaving.

Many students told reporters that they did not agree with the police's accusation of "illegal detention and restriction of personal freedom." Lu Qiuzhen said that on June 6, she heard the dean say "I voluntarily stayed and was with my classmates" to solve the problem. A recording she provided showed that on June 7, the dean said: "I didn't leave, I am waiting here with you... I am also anxious, and I also hope that the leaders above can give a positive answer."

Lu Qiuzhen added that during the dean's stay on campus, she saw students constantly buying water, fruits, and meals for the dean, and even holding umbrellas for the dean.

"After reading the official announcement, I was really angry and speechless. The school has confused right and wrong, we have been wronged, and we can't explain ourselves," said Lu Qiuzhen.

In the early hours of that evening, the Ministry of Education , Nanjing Normal University and Nanjing Normal University North China College all issued statements saying that the student identities, academic records and academic information on the China Higher Education Student Information and Career Center for students enrolled before the transfer will remain unchanged, and they will be trained according to the original talent training plan. Graduation certificates and degree certificates will still be issued in the name of Nanjing Normal University North China College.

However, the students' doubts and dissatisfaction have not subsided, and they continue to gather to protest. Zhou Qiyi (pseudonym), a senior student at North China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview that many students believe that the school is about to be transferred, the original school will no longer exist, and its documents have no credibility. At the same time, some students oppose the transfer and merger of the school, and "the student information remains unchanged" does not respond to their demands.

Lu Qiuzhen said that on the morning of June 7, hundreds of police officers lined up and pulled up blockades to block the campus, and some police uniforms had the words "auxiliary police" and "security guard" printed on them.

She said that on the evening of June 7, she and more than 300 classmates confronted the police at the south gate of the campus. There were five rows of police officers at the scene, with about 30 people in each row. The protesting students held banners and shouted slogans: "Reject vocational colleges, give me back general colleges" and "The people's police serve the people."

At 8 o'clock that evening, violence broke out at the south gate of the campus.

"I saw several policemen surrounding a classmate, pressing his head, beating him with fists and slapping him. There were also girls whose hair and clothes were pulled by the police, and four policemen forcibly carried a girl away," said Lu Qiuzhen.

"I was angry and scared. There were so many policemen, and they beat us regardless of gender. They had batons, and we were unarmed," Lu Qiuzhen said. "There was a five-star red flag at the school gate, and they beat the students under it."

The video she provided to reporters showed that night, which showed a girl being violently pulled by two policemen and her clothes being torn off. The other two policemen saw the girl struggling, lifted her feet and forcibly dragged her away.

A video of the same scene was circulated on Twitter about two hours later. In the video, protesting students gathered together, raised their hands, and confronted the police who formed a human wall. Students were constantly grabbed from the crowd by the police, pressed to the ground, and dragged away roughly. In the video, a student shouted: "The police beat people! Why do they beat people!" At the same time, the police kept repeating through the loudspeaker: "Stay calm."

Lu Qiuzhen said she and rows of classmates shouted slogans and charged toward the human wall formed by the police again and again. "The boys held up banners, they were very tall, and their eyes were determined," she said.

She was nervous, excited, angry and scared. Her hands were shaking and her palms were sweating. The place was filled with the smell of sweat.

"The classmates around me are so numerous and have the same goal. I rarely experience such unity in real life and I am very moved," she said.

She described how the police stood in five rows, with the police at the back putting their hands on the shoulders of the police in front, expressionless. The students stared at them, and they turned their heads away. Some police officers smiled contemptuously and teasingly, as if to say, "Look at what you have done." The girl next to her was very angry and shouted, "How can you, the people's police, be so indifferent?" No one responded.

Lu Qiuzhen said that suddenly, the police sprayed the students with a pungent liquid that looked like pepper spray. She said: "I stepped back, and the students were very orderly, and everyone protected each other and retreated together."

“At that point I had no fear, only anger,” she said.

The reporter called the Zhongshan Road Police Station of the Danyang Municipal Public Security Bureau to inquire about the issue of police violence on the evening of June 7. Its staff said: "The police are all obeying orders and maintaining order. I personally don't know whether there was any beating." The reporter then contacted the Zhenjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau, whose staff refused to respond to relevant questions and hung up the phone several times.

On the evening of June 7, while violent clashes were taking place, Dean Chang Qing was in the lecture hall talking to more than 100 students, continuing to discuss matters related to the merger and transfer. In the early morning, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education issued a notice to "suspend the merger and transfer of independent colleges and higher vocational colleges"; Nanjing Normal University issued a notice to "terminate the merger and transfer of North China College and higher vocational colleges, and no longer transfer them to vocational education undergraduate programs."

But the distrust between students and the university continues. Zhou Qiyi said that although she was not in the lecture hall, she heard that students on the scene questioned the difference between the Education Department's "suspension of transfer" and Nanjing Normal University's "termination of transfer", and asked the dean whether he could guarantee a permanent stop to the transfer, but the dean remained silent.

A staff member from the Information Office of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education told reporters: "The transfer has been suspended for the time being. Whether the transfer will continue and how it will be carried out are still under study, and no information will be released to the public at this time." Chen Zhufeng, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Party Committee of Nanjing Normal University, refused to be interviewed, and the contact information provided on the official website of North China University of Technology could not be reached.

In the early morning of the next day, violence occurred for the second time in the lecture hall.

Lu Qiuzhen and Zhou Qiyi said that at 4 a.m. on June 8, more than 100 police officers entered the lecture hall and tried to take the dean, who was sitting on the podium, away, and clashed with students who tried to stop them. "The police beat people with batons, and many students were injured and bleeding. They couldn't even run away in the lecture hall," Zhou Qiyi said.

The video provided by Lu Qiuzhen showed that some police beat students with batons, or pointed batons at students who approached and shouted at them, and some police dragged girls by their hair, or sprayed irritating liquids at close range. A girl cried, "I can't open my eyes!"

In the video, unarmed students faced police batons and shields. Some threw drinks at the police, some used their mobile phones to record videos, or used their bodies to protect classmates who were beaten, pulled, and pushed by the police. Some also found mineral water to help classmates wash their eyes after being sprayed with irritating liquids.

The screams and cries of the students and the shouts and whistles of the police seemed increasingly harsh in the small lecture hall.

Lu Qiuzhen said: "Several policemen surrounded a classmate and beat him. A girl was beaten to the point of bleeding on the top of her head, and a boy was strangled by the neck, with red marks all over his body."

She added that the students she knew who were beaten in the lecture hall could only buy medicine on their own and could not leave the school to go to the hospital. A seriously injured student told her that he called 120, but "120 hung up when they heard it was from our school."

In the video, those who had violent clashes with students included special police wearing bulletproof vests, helmets, and holding blast shields, police officers with the words "Danyang Mobile" or "Zhenjiang Mobile" written on them, auxiliary police officers in uniforms, and men in black but not in uniforms, but they all held batons or irritant sprays in their hands.

In the notice issued by the Danyang Municipal Public Security Bureau , the above conflict was described as follows: "The public security organs repeatedly warned the students and carried out legal publicity, but were besieged and cursed by some students, who obstructed law enforcement... The public security organs took necessary measures in accordance with the law to remove the trapped people."

The reporter called the Zhongshan Road Police Station of the Danyang Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Zhenjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau to inquire about the legal basis for police violence and use of force in the early morning of June 8, but their staff refused to answer.

On the morning of June 8, violence occurred for the third time on the campus streets.

Lu Qiuzhen said that a few hours after the police violence occurred in the lecture hall in the early morning, the police, with the help of school staff, violently controlled several students on campus and took them to the police station.

The video she provided showed that about 20 police officers pinned two students to the ground, punched and kicked the students who had already fallen to the ground. The police grabbed the fleeing students in the chaotic crowd, and many students came to support them. The school administrative staff pointed at individual students, and the police rushed towards them.

In another video she provided, a boy was grabbed by five policemen. He tried to break free but was pinned to the ground. Another boy was standing nearby when six policemen and a school staff member suddenly rushed forward, clamped his neck with their hands, and took him away. Another school staff member pointed at the students shouting around and said, "Calm down, calm down."

Lu Qiuzhen said that the police also went directly to the dormitory to arrest people. "Some students criticized the school and the police online, and their comments were quite direct, so they were taken away." In addition, starting from June 8, the police and school staff went to the student dormitories to check the students' mobile phones one by one, and forced them to delete videos and pictures related to violent conflicts with the police.

"We were all scared," Lu Qiuzhen said. "I deleted my Moments in advance, uploaded all the videos and pictures to the cloud, and deleted the chat history after the conversation, so I was not troubled by the police."

Danyang Public Security Bureau issued a notice stating that the public security organs are "investigating the illegal acts involved in this incident in accordance with the law." The Zhongshan Road Police Station of Danyang Public Security Bureau and Zhenjiang Public Security Bureau refused to answer questions related to the violent arrest of students during the day on June 8, the forced inspection of students' mobile phones, and the deletion of videos.

Fear also comes from reports from classmates. Lu Qiuzhen said that a boy in her class wrote an article on QQ space criticizing police violence and the school. Although it was deleted a few minutes after it was published, his classmates took screenshots and reported him. He was arrested by the police on the evening of June 7 and released about 24 hours later.

Lu Qiuzhen added that on June 8, school staff and counselors entered the WeChat groups of students' classes and dormitories and prohibited students from creating their own groups. "Our class created a small group, but within a few minutes, a screenshot was sent out and then it was quickly disbanded."

"We don't know what to do next, so we can only stay calm and attend classes as normal, but we feel very depressed," Lu Qiuzhen said. "We are restricted from speaking out, and there is nothing we can do."

"School leaders even ordered people to be arrested. I am very disappointed with the school," she said. "I just hope that my classmates can be safe, protect themselves, and be safe."

The source of the storm

The relocation of seven schools including North China University of Political Science and Law is due to the country's adjustment of the shortcomings of the independent college system. Independent colleges emerged in the 1990s. Under the contradiction between the expansion of college enrollment and the shortage of higher education resources, the state encouraged undergraduate colleges to cooperate with social institutions to establish undergraduate-level secondary independent colleges to promote the popularization of higher education. According to research statistics , as of 2018, 4.73 million students have graduated from more than 300 independent colleges across the country.

However, the "expansion of higher education" no longer meets social needs. In 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued a document stating that China's shortage of high-level skilled workers is as high as 20 million, calling for a change in talent concepts and an emphasis on skilled worker education.

However, vocational education is considered to be "inferior" education. Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, wrote an article after the transfer incident, pointing out that students' opposition to the transfer reflects that "in the academic social public opinion environment, vocational education has been stigmatized and portrayed as an education that only poor students can receive."

Xiong Bingqi said that the development of vocational education cannot be solved by building vocational and technical universities and changing the school name. He proposed that institutional discrimination and belittling of vocational education should be eliminated, and criticized the education department for using the general high school rate and undergraduate rate to evaluate junior and senior high schools and allocate educational resources based on this.

But the reality is that degree certificates have become the "hard currency" of career development, and the degree level is closely linked to social class. Many interviewees told reporters that losing the status of ordinary undergraduates and converting to vocational undergraduates will have a significant impact on job hunting, postgraduate entrance examinations, civil service examinations, and recruitment examinations. Taking the civil service examination as an example, the range of positions that candidates without bachelor's degrees can apply for is far smaller than those with bachelor's degrees, and the level and salary are lower.

The Beijing News analyzed that because independent colleges are reluctant to lose the reputation of their parent schools, and parent schools are reluctant to lose the tuition commissions of independent colleges, the transformation work has progressed slowly in the past decade. In May last year, the Ministry of Education issued an "ultimatum", requiring all independent colleges to formulate transformation work plans before the end of 2020.

However, the setting of deadlines, as well as the arrogance of university administrations and their habitual disregard for student opinions, have caused the conflict to escalate.

It was not until February this year that North China University of Technology began to solicit opinions from students on the transfer. The screenshots Zhou Qiyi provided to reporters showed that North China University of Technology solicited "Public Opinion Survey on Merger and Transfer" from students through an app in early February, which briefly outlined "according to the spirit of the Ministry of Education's transfer, please give your opinions" but did not specify specific measures such as school mergers and changes in degree information.

Zhou Qiyi said: "We don't know how to transfer or what to transfer to. We only know that this is a national policy. The solicitation of opinions is just a formality. There is only an 'agree/disagree' option and an optional opinion column. We ticked the "agree" box."

She said that since February, there have been rumors on campus about the merger with the vocational college, but students have never received a response to inquiries from the school. It was not until June 5 that she saw a document in the news that the Ministry of Education agreed to the merger and transfer of North China University of Technology, but at that time the school still had not released any information related to the transfer.

"Many people are shocked and angry and feel they have been deceived by the school," Zhou Qiyi said.

So, the students went to the dean the next day to "ask for an explanation", and what followed was the school closure, demonstrations, and police violence.

"The school ignored public opinion and refused to communicate, allowing the problem to grow bigger and bigger, and the students' anger was aroused step by step," Zhou Qiyi said. "It is normal for students to care about their future. No one wants to hurt themselves."

She was also angry about the school staff at all levels. She said: "When the police beat us, the teachers never spoke for us and even ordered the police to arrest us. We are just defending our rights. You teachers are also role models. Why do you arrest people at the slightest provocation?"

She also said that during the conflict, counselors held a meeting and said that it was impossible for students to organize such a large-scale group gathering to protest and that they must have been used by foreign forces.

Rights protection and “foreign forces”

The accusation of "foreign forces" came more from the Internet. When students were subjected to police violence, they sought help on social media such as Weibo and Douban. Many netizens mocked the students for "becoming like the Hong Kong youth" because of words such as "parade" and "protest", and teased them, "I support the Nanjing police, you can beat people up now." At the same time, many netizens claimed that "students colluded with foreign forces" to undermine social stability before the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China.

The reporter observed that the witch-hunting and account-blocking incidents of Xiao Meili and other feminist activists this year showed that netizens hold the power to define "foreign forces" and being labeled is equivalent to "political death penalty." In the public discussion of the transfer incident, videos of police violence and voices of rational discussion were deleted and banned, and the spearhead was directed at the students' political stance, causing the merger and transfer to lose focus and no one cared about the students being beaten.

Among the students who organized the protest, there were instructions such as “Don’t post the video online” and “Don’t accept interviews from foreign media.” Two students who were interviewed by reporters repeatedly emphasized: “We are not against the government or the country’s major policies. We are against the school’s non-transparency and non-openness. We just want to protect our own rights.”

Human rights activist Badiucao commented that the “patriotism and rejection of foreign networks” propaganda tactics are intended to protect themselves and to mobilize centrist students, but “obviously their cleverness and calculations are preventing them from realizing that they are already enemies of the state apparatus.” He said, “In the eyes of the authorities, gathering people is a threat to the party’s leadership. There is no reason to justify this behavior. There is no difference at all between the so-called contradictions among the people and foreign forces.”

After the police violence, Lu Qiuzhen said that all students in the school were forced to go to the classroom and attend class meetings. She witnessed the violence and saw people around her fall under the fists of the police, and her heart was pierced by trauma. In the days after the violence, she was depressed and studied hard. She got up at 7 o'clock in the morning to go to the library, read professional books and mark the key points, and returned to the dormitory at 7 o'clock in the evening. "After I pass the postgraduate entrance examination, I will leave this place," she said.

Because of the danger of being reported and the imminent quarrel, she was unwilling to talk more about the demonstrations and violence with her classmates. Like the classmates around her who were beaten, arrested, and witnessed all this, she pretended that nothing happened and tried to continue her studies and life.

Suddenly, the violent scene flashed back to her mind. She sat there in a daze, thinking of her classmate being knocked to the ground, dragged to the police station, and sprayed with irritating liquid until she couldn't open her eyes.

She said: "I will never give in. One more surrender means one less hope. I can't be a torch, but I can be a firefly. I can distinguish right from wrong and never forget what happened here."

"Then be safe," she added after a moment's thought.

(Because the interviewees are in danger of being arrested, in order to protect their safety, Lu Qiuzhen and Zhou Qiyi in this article are both pseudonyms)

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