China: Disgruntled students tear up campus

Another search on Chinese video sharing site Tudou for the word protest today brings this video uploaded May 24 and entitled ‘Xinhua Adult Education Institute, Students Cheated, Protest!’ in which students can be seen blocking a road and traffic backed up into the background:

Which led to this video of a smashed-up police station:

A search on Google for the school's name and ‘students cheated’ brings this account of the protest, dated May 27, copied from elsewhere and posted anonymously:

本人是安徽新华电脑学院合肥 大学部 06届 数字媒体专业学生

This writer is a digital media major ('08) from the Xinhua Computer Institute in Hefei, Anhui province.

自己二零零七年五月二十二日晚十二点开始。
到现在。本学院因为学校无法对现我们来校时所对我们发出的承诺。而发生大型爆动。场面之大。很难想像。

This starts on the night of May 22, 2007
Until now this school has been unable to fulfill all the promises it made to us when we came here. Now it's given rise to a large-scale riot so big in scale it's hard to imagine.

    

先把爆动的原因说一下。
我们来校之间。学校对我们讲的是。我们所拿的为江苏大学毕业证。现在无没对现。给我们的是新华学院成教院(相当于中专毕业证)的毕业证。 这是一点。。

First I'll explain the reasons for the rioting.
At the time we came to this school, they told us we would be be granted graduation diplomas from Jiangsu University. They've still yet to follow through. What they gave us were graduation certificates from the Xinhua Institute school for adult education, equivalent to a high school level polytechnic diploma. This is one.

    

二:我们所选择的数字媒体专业只招收1300人。现在学校多招收了。学校无法给多招收的学校发放数字媒体专业证书。学校在没有经过学生的同意下。甚至没有通知学样。私下的把学生的专业修改。

Second, the digital media major that we chose only recruits 1,300 students. Yet they continue recruiting. The school is now unable to provide those students with digital media major diplomas. The administration did this without the students’ permission and even without notifying the school, secretly having changed students’ majors.

    

新华骗了我们。骗了我们大家。

Xinhua has cheated us. Cheated our families.

    

所为才会有今天的大型爆动发生。

This is why today's large-scale riot occured.

    

下面我把今天下午二点到现在的情况向大家介绍一下。

Below I'll recount for everybody the events that took place today starting at 2 o'clock p.m.

    

今天下下午二点十五分时。由本学院数字媒体专业。05 06 届学生为首。派每班带班长为代表想同学校协商解决。但是学校没有一个人出面。
二点二十分左右。在学校无人出面的情况下。全数字媒体(下称数媒)专业学校。走出学校。在学校门口的路上(合肥的主要交通要道)举行示威。
拦下所有在此路上过往的车俩。造成交通堵塞。车龙长达数十公理。

A 2:15 this afternoon, class monitors from every tutorial for the classes of 2007 and 2008 were sent to represent their classmates in negotiations with the school. Not a single person from the administration showed up.
At around 2:25, with still nobody having shown up, the entire school for digital media walked out of the school and onto the road in front of campus (which happens to be the main traffic corridor in Hefei) and held a demonstration.
We closed the road, blocking all cars, creating a traffic jam. Cars were lined back for over ten kilometers.

    

下午四点半左右。安徽新华 总院长到场/还是无法解决问题。
在合一区学生代表的会议上。被一女人用矿泉水瓶砸了。

At 4:30 that afternoon the Institute president still hadn't shown up, there was still no way to resolve the problem.
During the meeting of student representatives, one woman smashed a bottle.

    

学校对学生们的欺骗行为极其恶劣,数百名学生十分愤怒,暴动时间已进行了十几小时了

The school's deception of the students is extremely horrible, and hundreds of students were very furious. The riot carried on for over ten hours.

    

晚上六点左右。一保安动手打了一学生。学生愤怒起来。学校大门被拆,保卫科也被砸毁,

At around six in the evening one security guard started beating one student. The students became enraged and ripped the front campus gate off. The guard station was smashed and destroyed.

当地出动将近百名警察仍不见起色,学校所有的保安不知去向/

Nearly a hundred police were called out but still there was no improvement, all the campus security guards were nowhere to be found.

    

现在时间为晚上七点五十分。学生的爆动还在继续中。
由于现场的照像机还在始用之中。
现在无法提供第一手的照片资料给大家。
爆动还在继续我会第一时间为大家提供第一次现场资料。
请大家急时关注

Now it's 7:50 at night. The student riot is still going on.
As cameras are all still being used down at the scene,
Unable to provide everybody with firsthand images.
As long as the riot continues I'll keep everyone updated.
Please everyone pay close attention.

    

{转者言:我也是和他一个院区的,目睹了第一现场.中午我会把图片发上来..现在所有暴动人员已经举行了大型签名,他们拉着布条正在向市府广场出发…………待续}

(From the person who reposted this: this writer and I are from the same part of campus, we're watching live. At noon I'll upload some photos. Now the rioters have started a large-scale petition. They've taken the list and are heading for the city government….update coming soon)

现在新华集团把很多媒体都收买了 各大媒体不给报道

Now the Xinhua corporation has bought out many local media, none of them are reporting this.

记得我来到新华的第一天,我就说了一句,新华这里根本就不算是一个学校,早知道是这样的,我还不如去上电脑培训班呢,别的不 …
作者:si cheng 2007-6-1 8:25:00

I remember the day I first came to Xinhua, writes reader si cheng on June 1. I'll just say one thing: here at Xinhua, this is not a school. I saw that early on. I might as well have taken a computer training class. Never mind all the other…

xinhualargecops.jpg

A look through the Google results for the name of the school and ‘students have been cheated’ brings back 167,000 results, but going through the first two pages thereof shows bbs postings mentioning the incident have been deleted off China.com (NASDAQ: CHINA), the Phoenix TV BBS, a Nanjing BBS, a consumer group website, a MOP forum—one of the biggest in China, Yahoo! China's bbs, Dahe,
a Chinese education forum and shouxian bbs.

Then in the order in which they appeared on Google, here are some of the eyewitness reports which have not or will not be deleted. First in line—a blog! Little Cloud's, which dated May 27 confirms what the anonymous writer wrote above, that students had blocked off a road by 3 pm on the 22nd, saying police, journalists and several local tv crews arrived at the scene shortly after, but claiming that Xinhua had leaned on its connections to get the story killed:

此后日渐变黑,各方情绪都很激动。出现了老师打学生的事情后,形势一度出现混乱。最后到晚上6点多钟时,愤怒的学生推倒了校方拦堵他们的铁门并和门卫发生冲突。在校方一再劝诱下,和公安的疏导下,学生逐渐返回学校,一直到晚上7点半,公路才勉强通车。

Then the sky turned black and emotions became agitated. After teachers were seen hitting students, everything turned chaotic. At last that night at just after 6, the furious students pushed down the steel door the school had erected to contain them and clashed with the guards. At the administration's call, police gradually chased students back to the school until traffic was able to move again around 7:30.

截至07年5月23日晚8时至9时左右,**进一步升级!合肥市领导以及省领导陆续到达新华电脑学院位于肥东县龙塘镇的学院!至此,市里已派出数百名防暴警察至此,而且出动119救火车,据本人判断,出动119并不是怕出火灾,可能是想用高压水枪来冲散人群!
至晚9点半左右,全校学生晚自习放学,更大的**开始了,学校里的门,窗等全部被砸,消防器材也不能幸免!位于顶层的水塔也被从楼上推下!学校里一片狼籍!
从晚9点半左右开始的**整整持续了近4个小时左右!学院领导全部在办公室开会,讨论对策,但无能为力!至此安徽省教育厅厅长也到达学院,并在晚12时左右向同学们发表讲话!(由于本人未到讲话地,没能听见内容!但上午上课前在学校到处都可看见通知,具体内容是要求每班派两个代表去多功能厅说对学院的要求等)

Around 8 or 9 on the evening of the 23rd the situation upgraded! Hefei city and Anhui provincial government leaders one after the otehr came down to Feidong County, Longtang Village where the Institute is located! By this point several hundred armed police had already been dispatched and ambulances were standing nearby. From what I could tell, the ambulances weren't there for fear of a fire, but to use the water cannons to break up the crowds!
Starting at 9:30 rioting began and continued steady for around another four hours! Institute administration were all in their office having a meeting, discussing countermeasures, but it didn't work! Then the Anhui provincial education minister showed up ad the school and around midnight a statement was issued to the students! (because I wasn't at the speech, I didn't hear what was said! but in the morning before class [the next day] there were notices everywhere, mostly just saying that each class needed to send two representatives to the multipurpose room to give the administration their demands)

More at the 9158 bbs from user aqzhangyu, writing just after noon on May 24:

今天中午我才知道,我们数字媒体专业毕业后拿的毕业证上面是“计算机应用专业”!我们这个专业的学生要罢课,太气人了!这个计算机应用证根本就没用,外面根本就不认可这个专业,因为其他大专学校的学生都可以拿这个证书,而且我们数字媒体专业的学费比其他专业的学费贵了几千块钱呢!(除网工专业)新华又欺骗了我们!
当初我们来新华的时候,告诉我们毕业证拿的是江苏大学的毕业证,可是,等成考了,却告诉我们拿的是新华成教院的证书,当时就气死了!
总的来说,新华就是一个靠骗人进来的监狱,我们女生停水,一天24小时就给2个小时的电,食堂的饭菜贵的要死不说,还特难吃~

I only just found out today at lunch after we graduate, us digital media majors are going to have “applied computer major” written on our diplomas! We students are going to go on strike, we're so angry! This applied computer major certificate is useless. Nobody out there recognizes this major because students at other universities get the same thing only us digital media majors pay several thousand more in tuition than those in other majors do (except internet engineering)! Xinhua's cheating us!
When I came to Xinhua they told use that we would get diplomas from Jiangsu University but then when after finals were over they told us we would be getting Xinhua Adult Education Institute certificates. We were so pissed off at the time!
Overall, Xinhua is nothing more than a prison which tricks people to get them in. There's no electricity in the women's dorms and they only have two hours electricity every day. The food in the cafeteria is so expensive it kills, and it tastes bad too.

就是为了不发大专毕业证引起的第2次爆动  其后果比第一次更严重  学校大门被推倒,学校被砸烂。暴动还在进行中。
爆动一事闹的沸沸扬扬,但一波未停一波又起。5月23日(即爆动的第二天)下午3点左右,新华数字媒体与艺术设计专业的学生齐聚在学校的大门前,将交通繁忙的合巢公路拦腰切断,现场混乱不堪。
据笔者了解到,学生拦路事件的起因可能是因为个别专业的毕业证书与新华承诺的不符,导致学生们的不满,找领导解决,但似乎被拒绝,因而促成不满情绪的高涨,才做出堵路的行为。
但具体原因现在笔者也正在调查,外面流传的有两种情况:

It's precisely because they're not giving us our diplomas that there have been two riots, with the second much more serious than the first. The campus gate was pushed down and the school has been smashed up. The riot is still continuing.
The riot has stayed noisy throughout. Before one wave ends another picks up. On May 23 (day 2 of the riots) at around 3 in the afternoon, the digital media and art & design students gathered in front of the school's main gate, bringing all traffic to a complete halt. Very chaotic.
According to what this writer has learned, the reason students blocked the road might have to do with the discrepancy between the ultimate graduation diplomas and the ones students were promised, leaving all students unsatisfied and looking for the administration to fix the problem. It seems they were refused though, because emotions just swelled before people decided to go block the road.
The key reason, though, this writer is still looking into. There are two situations being spread around:

第一种:
在学生入学时,校方答应毕业后颁发江苏大学的专科毕业证,但在成人高考前,校方突然告诉学生,说这两个专业的学生(前面提到的专业)毕业后改拿新华学院颁发的毕业证书,当时学生们就进行过一次小规模的抗议,因校方的调解,才使抗议行为没有恶化。但临近毕业了,校方告诉他们,说毕业后他们拿不到专业毕业证,而是拿:计算机应用证书,学生们似乎对此证书不感兴趣,因而导致事情恶化。

First:
When students entered the school they were told by administration that they would be granted associate degrees from Jiangsu University, but just before the final examinations the administration suddenly told students that two majors (digital media and art & design) would be getting Xinhua Institute certificates. At the time the students held a small-scale protest but the administration mediated before it turned ugly. But as graduation drew closer, they were told they wouldn't be getting associate degrees, but applied computer certificates. Students seemed uhappy to hear this and then things all got ugly.

第二种:
前面的大致与第一种情况相同,但后来毕业证书又有所差异,传言说他们拿不到大专文凭,只能混个中专文凭,这下学生们急了,好不容易交了几万块钱,就混个中专文凭,说什么也不行呀,因而就以堵塞公路进行维护自身利益。希望得到有关部门的关注。

Secondly:
Similar to the first, only that a new discrepancy appeared in regards to the diplomas. The rumor was that they wouldn't be getting junior college credentials but technical school credentials at the high school level. Students didn't take this lightly; they had paid several tens of thousands of Yuan after all, and not for high school level certification. Nothing they said seemed to have any effect so they went out and held a roadblock to uphold their own interests. I hope they get the right authorities’ attention.

以上两种情况笔者也没有得到证实,所以先将文章发表出来,收集更准确的信息,请知情的同学提供真实的情况!

The above two situations have not been substantiated by this writer. That's why I've written these, to get more accurate information. Those of you who know the truth please let me know!

A thread at the Netease education forum started by user qwf1986520 on May 25 tells roughly the same story, adding some details such the power being turned on just before midnight on the 22nd in the 30 degree weather, that around 2000 students spent 4 hours blocking the road on the afternoon of the 23rd starting at 1pm and that roughly 1000 students were blocked halfway during a march to city hall on the 24th. Five hundred allegedly began a silent seated protest and shortly after police began hitting students. Towards the end it's mentioned that mention of the story is being censored online and in traditional media.

网上几乎找不到次此事件的报到。如百度、51空间、博客、个人网页,上传的图片视频全部被删。可见新华的后台如此之硬。!!!
自教育局得到的确切消息:新华成教院至少有5项体制是不合法的。
小道消息:(可信程度达75%)新华的后台最大的股东之一的后面是江泽民的妹妹江泽惠。而江泽惠本人曾经在合肥呆过一段时间。后因不知何事,调回北京。相信江泽惠本人和新华有着密切的关联。!!
以上是报道的事件。
事件的处理结果:于25日出来了~~结果是上诉的两个专业:
1:可以继续读下去,但是所学的专业,证书将不会有。而是其他专业的证书。但是校方赔偿3000元。
2:立即退学,校方将退还剩余学费(按实际情况收费)(注:此项完全合理,在这不多诉)。没有证书。
3:两年制大专将转成一年制,学费退回60%。(没有大专证)

I can't seem to find any reports on this online. Like Baidu, 51Space, blogs, personal websites. All the photos and video that have were uploaded have been deleted. You can see just what hard powers stand behind Xinhua!!!
There's some news from the education department: the Xinhua Adult Education Institute has violated the law in at least five places.
Inside story (reliability: 75%): One of Xinhua's largest shareholders is closely connected to Jiang Zemin‘s little sister Jiang Zehui. And Jiang Zehui herself has spent some time in Anhui but later for reasons I don't know was transferred back to Beijing. I believe Jiang Zehui herself and Xinhua are intimately connected!!
Above is what's being reported.
How the incident was resolved: on the 25th it came out that the two majors were allowed to appeal and have been given three choices.
1) Continue studying but do not receive a diploma for past studies, only for future studies and receive compensation of 3,000 yuan.
2) Immediately withdraw and the school will refund half your tuition (according to the tuition you paid) No diploma.
3) Two years of credit become one year and no diploma will be awarded but a 60% tuition refund will be given.

Accompanying aqzhangyu's report at the 9158 bbs was a post from user zhaiweiwei6636 which showed these photos:

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7 comments

  • Michael Jacobson

    I feel like I’ve read this before. Terrible.

  • MF

    Didn’t the school officials learn anything from the riots at Shengda in Henan a year ago? The exact thing happened. The students were told they were going to get a Zhengzhou University diploma, and after four years of paying 10,000 RMB per year tuition, they found out they weren’t. They went on a rampage too.

  • Yeah. The first thing I thought of when I read this was this, then why I hadn’t seen this blogged (or reported..) anywhere else. Obviously Xinhua’s a very large corporation, even just look at its NASDAQ code. And if it’s true what the blogger says about Jiang Zehui..those poor kids.

  • I live in this city where the riot took. But I didn’t know this event because the campus is in the suburb of Hefei. As far as I know, Jiang Zehui did have certain kind of relation to Xinhua Group, as the gossip goes. She used to be a teacher in Agricultural University of Anhui. Xinhua is a very successful company in term of its business performance in the computer education market, but seems that it’s not a public listed company and I don’t think it would be powerful enough to manipulate media. Not only Xinhua, almost all the players in this market has some frauds in its enrollment and promotion. Indeed, the local TV channel were all filled with their ad.

  • christeven

    Well done!those kids!
    You make the T in China XieHua Group

  • christeven

    干的好,像这样的骗子就应该得到这样的结果
    国家不出面管管也的确悲哀!

    Translation: Well done. Fraudsters like these deserve this kind of response.
    If the central government doesn’t step in, it’ll be a sorrow.

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