Violent protests after the death of a Pucheng student

The death of a teenager sparked violent protests in a city in northwest China, as confirmed by the BBC through a verified video.

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

Authorities said the teen fell to his death on Jan. 2 in an accident in his school dormitory. But after his death, accusations of a cover-up began to spread on social media.

Protests broke out soon after and lasted for several days, before they were apparently quelled earlier this week. The BBC has seen no further evidence of protests in Pucheng since then.

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

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

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

The BBC has confirmed that these videos were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Center and found no previous versions online before the outbreak of protests in recent days.

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

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

Before his death, Dang was awakened at night by other students chatting in his dorm room, according to the statement. He got into an argument and altercation with a boy, which was resolved by a school official.

Later that night, another student found his body at the foot of the dormitory block.

The statement describes it as “an accident in which a student fell from a height at the school.” He added that police had carried out investigations and an autopsy and “at the moment are excluding it as a criminal case.”

But accusations have circulated online for 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 committed suicide after being bullied by the boy he had fought with earlier.

Unverified comments from his family have been circulating, alleging 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 for long.

The accusations appeared to have outraged many in Pucheng, sparking protests that drew at least hundreds of people.

Bullying has become a highly sensitive issue in China in recent years, and previous cases of student deaths sparked protests. Last month, a Chinese court handed down long prison sentences to two teenagers who murdered a classmate.

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

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

A verified clip shows a school official confronted by protesters who were yelling and shoving him. Others show destroyed offices on campus and protesters tearing down a barricade at the school entrance.

Another shows protesters throwing objects such as traffic cones at groups of retreating police; and officers tackling and detaining people while hitting them with batons. Some protesters are seen with blood on their heads and faces.

There is little information about what happened next, but reports on social media suggest a much larger police presence in Pucheng in recent days and there are no further reports of demonstrations.

Authorities have also urged the public not to “create rumors, believe rumors or spread rumors.”