Student's death sparks a rare government response in China
BEIJING — They waved white flowers in the air before the school entrance, chanting: "Truth! Truth! Truth! Truth! Truth!"
Uniformed police quickly dispersed the protesters, knocking some to the ground and tackling others, then pushing them away, as seen in several videos that went viral online. But public anger continued to grow, with millions of online views and comments demanding clarity on the mysterious death Sunday of a 17-year-old boy at Chengdu No. 49 Middle School in China's Sichuan province.
It was the latest in a series of recent student deaths in China that have left parents heartbroken and struggling with inadequate answers or accountability for how their children died. But this one snowballed, sparking a rare outburst reminiscent of the demands for free speech that flooded China's internet when whistle-blowing Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang died
