Chinese students voice hopes for Mideast peace in rare public political stand
- Videos of high school gaokao exam-takers with Palestinian flags appear – and disappear – online
It has become a custom in recent years for Chinese media to ask students who have just finished the national university entrance exams, known as the gaokao, what they wish for.
This year’s hopes included the usual desire to get into a dream university, have game companies improve their video games, and attend a concert by a favourite singer.
But a number of short videos posted online also showed students voicing support for Palestine.
By Monday afternoon, the final day of the exams, many of the original posts of media interviews with those students were no longer available on the Chinese version of TikTok called Douyin, the WeChat video channel or the X-like Weibo.
It was not clear why the original clips had been taken down but those reposted by individual users were not deleted.