BBCThe BBC has verified picture to confirm the death of a young boy’s death, which sparked violent protests in a town in northwest China.
In some videos posted on social media, activists can be seen hurling items at officers and officers who are beating some demonstrators in Pucheng, Shaanxi province.
Government claimed the teen died in a car accident at his school on January 2. However, after his demise, rumors began to surface that there had been a cover-up.
Protests broke out shortly after and continued for a number of times before they appeared to stop earlier this month. Since then, the BBC hasn’t seen any additional Pucheng opposition facts.
People demonstrations are not uncommon in China, but officials have been especially sensitive about them since the 2022 White Paper protests against Covid laws, which received unusual criticism of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
The Pucheng rallies have not been covered by the state advertising. As is typically the case with incidents deemed vulnerable by authorities, any videos or mention of the presentations have been mostly censored from Chinese social media.
However, a number of films were leaked from China and posted on X.
No earlier editions of these films were available online before the alleged epidemic of the protests over the past several weeks, despite the BBC’s confirmation that these films were shot at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre.
A representative from the Pucheng government’s publicity office denied there had been demonstrations when the BBC spoke with us. When we called an established handling internet inquiries, there was no response.
Local authorities claimed that the girl, who was third-year pupil at the Pucheng education center, was a surnamed Dang in a statement released earlier this week.
According to their speech, Dang had been awakened by other pupils chatting in his dorm at night before his death. He had an encounter and discussion with a child, which was settled by a college official.
Another student discovered his body at the foot of the hostel block later that night.
It was described as a” crash at school where a student fell from a level” according to the statement. The officers “at the moment exclude it as a legal case,” it added, adding that they had conducted studies and an examination.
However, there have been rumors online for days that there is more to the account and that the university and authorities are keeping the truth a secret. One consideration claimed, without evidence, that Dang killed himself after he was bullied by the child he’d fought with earlier.
Unverified statements from his family have been going around, alleging that the injury on Dang’s body were incongruent with the government ‘ accounts and that they were prevented from looking at his body for very long.
At least hundreds of people gathered for demonstrations in Pucheng after the claims appeared to have irked many there.
Bullying has become a highly sensitive topic in China in recent years, with past cases of student deaths triggering protests. Last month, a Chinese court handed out lengthy jail sentences to two teenagers who murdered a classmate.
There are also video posted on X on Monday that the BBC has confirmed were shot at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre and show persons mourning the adolescent’s passing. They threw pieces of paper from the roof of a school building in a standard mourning tradition and placed flowers and products at the school’s access.
Additional videos that are available online have the appearance of young demonstrators storming a building and arguing with officers while yelling “give us the truth”
A college official is confronted by shouting demonstrators who shove him around in a checked video. Other images show destroyed offices in the substances and protesters lowering a wall at the college entrance.
Another video features protesters beating people with truncheons while throwing traffic rings at organizations of officers that are retreating, and officers tackling and detaining them. Some protesters have eyes and heads covered in blood.
Although there isn’t much knowledge about what will happen next, social media reports suggest that there have been more officers in Pucheng in recent days with no more demonstration reports.
Authorities have likewise urged the government not to” make speculations, believe in rumours, or scatter rumours”.