We're too scared to protest, say students
Students in Beijing's university district of Haidian expressed strong support for Hong Kong protest actions over the islands, but said they were frightened to stage any public protests themselves.
'Oh, it is too sensitive to talk about,' said one girl studying management at Beijing University, known as Beida, after glancing for support from her two companions.
A second-year student from the Petrochemical Industry Institute said: 'I do not dare discuss political questions, but I can say we all fully support our Hong Kong compatriots and their protests.' A fourth-year student from Beida said the mood of patriotism among his peers was running high and many felt government policy was not firm enough.
He had seen no posters but on one blackboard a student had written: 'In the past there was the Marco Polo Bridge incident, now we have the Diaoyu Islands.' Last week, China commemorated the bridge incident, which triggered the invasion of China in 1937.
'I feel such strong racial hatred that if China went to war over the islands, I would certainly enlist and fight to the death,' he said while admitting that he was not prepared to join any demonstrations.
'I would certainly be punished.' The university chancellor had summoned the leader of a group of physics students who were preparing to demonstrate and spent an evening trying to dissuade him.
Students said they had learned a lesson from 1989 when activists were expelled or exiled to low-status jobs in remote provinces.
But some teachers said they would back student protests.
'Even if there is trouble it does not matter because this is a good cause,' said one middle-aged woman. 'To see one's country's territorial integrity harmed is like seeing part of a limb cut off.' Other students were anxious to show they stuck rigidly to the government line.
'China is already an awakened lion and needs no further stimulation. Things are not like they were in the 1930s so I think the best way to show patriotism is to study hard,' said one student.
'The Government can handle this properly by itself,' agreed another.
Two students from the National Defence University said negotiations were the best possible course to resolve the dispute.
'Given our current lack of national strength it is better to solve the problem peacefully and jointly develop national resources with other countries,' one said.
His companion said the trouble was caused by other countries rushing to tap the oil and gas that lay beneath the surface of these and other disputed islands.
'But at the end of the day this is not about oil resources but national sovereignty, that's why we support Hong Kong,' said the students from the Petrochemical Industry Institute.
