Violent protests erupt after Pucheng student falls to death

The death of a teenager has sparked violent protests in a city in northwest China, the BBC has confirmed via verified video.

In videos shared on social media, protesters can be seen throwing objects at police and beating some protesters in Pucheng, Shaanxi province.

Authorities said the teenager died Jan. 2 in an accident in his school dormitory. But after his death allegations spread on social media that there had been a cover-up.

Protests erupted soon after and lasted for several days, before apparently being called off this week. The BBC has seen no further evidence of protest in Pucheng since then.

Public demonstrations are not uncommon in China, but authorities have been particularly sensitive about them since the White Paper protests against Covid policies in 2022, which saw rare criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping.

State media has been silent on the Pucheng protests. Any clips or mentions of the demonstrations have been largely censored from Chinese social media, as is often the case with incidents deemed sensitive by the authorities.

But several videos have been leaked from China and posted on X.

The BBC has confirmed that the videos were recorded at the Pucheng Vocational Training Centre, and no previous version was found online before the protests erupted in recent days.

When contacted by the BBC, a representative from the Pucheng government’s publicity department denied there had been any protests. There was no response when we called an officer handling media queries.

In a statement released earlier this week, local authorities said the teenager, surnamed Dang, was a third-year student at the Pucheng Education Center.

Before his death, Dang was woken up in the night by other students chatting in his bedroom, their statement said. He got into an argument and fight with a boy, which was resolved by a school official.

That night, another student found his body at the foot of the bedroom.

In the statement it is described as “an accident in which a student fell from a height at school”. He added that the police have carried out investigations and an autopsy, and “currently dismiss it as a criminal case”.

But allegations have surfaced online in recent days that there was more to the story and that the school and authorities were hiding the truth. One account claimed, without evidence, that Dang killed himself after being bullied by the boy he had fought earlier.

Unverified statements from his family are circulating that the injuries on Dang’s body did not match the authorities’ version of events and that they were not allowed to examine his body at length.

The allegations appear to have angered many in Pucheng, sparking protests that drew at least several hundred people.

Bullying has become a very sensitive issue in China in recent years, and student deaths have sparked protests. Last month, a Chinese court handed down lengthy prison terms two teenagers who murdered a classmate.

There are also videos posted on X on Monday, which the BBC confirmed were recorded at the Pucheng Vocational Training Centre, showing people mourning the teenager’s death. They placed flowers and offerings at the entrance of the school, and performed a traditional mourning ritual by throwing pieces of paper from the roof of a school building.

Other videos circulating online show protesters, many of them young, storming a building and clashing with police while shouting “give us the truth”.

An unverified clip shows a school official facing the chants of protesters pushing him. Others show destroyed office buildings and protesters tear down a barricade in front of a school.

Other clips show protesters hurling objects such as traffic cones at retreating police teams; and officers confronting and arresting people while beating them with batons. Some protesters are seen with blood on their heads and faces.

Little is known about what happened next, but reports on social media suggest a much larger police presence in Pucheng in recent days, with no reports of demonstrations.

The authorities have also asked the public “not to create rumours, believe in rumors or spread rumours”.