How China sees US campus protests
Student demonstrations spreading across U.S. campuses have drawn attention in Beijing, where comments by some officials and state media have conveyed sympathy for the protesters and criticism of what is seen as a U.S. double standard on protest crackdowns.
Any demonstrations, especially by students, are an extremely sensitive topic in China, where student movements have faced harsh crackdowns from the authorities, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Most recently, students fed up with years of campus lockdowns joined nationwide protests against Beijing’s Covid-19 restrictions in late 2022. Afterward, many who took part in the protests faced interrogation, detention and arrest.
China has often drawn attention to police response to protests in the U.S. After demonstrations in response to the 2020 killing of George Floyd in police custody, Chinese state media criticized police efforts to contain the protesters as heavy-handed. They also accused Washington of a double standard on human rights, referring to how the U.S.
has condemned China’s own handling of protests, including in Hong Kong. Even before police this week removed pro-Palestinian demonstrators from a Columbia University building they had occupied, several official media outlets, including the state broadcaster, have carried detailed accounts of American police confronting protesters. In a Sunday tweet accompanied by a video of what appears to be chaotic police arrests on different U.S.
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