Chinese President Xi Jinping believes ‘frustrated students’ are behind Covid-19 protests, EU officials say

European officials say Xi’s comments during a meeting with EU Council President Charles Michel may signal he is ready to loosen controls further

The Chinese leader is also reported to have said that the dominant Omicron strain is ‘less lethal’, but expressed concern about vaccinating the elderly

Reading Time:3 minutes

99+

Protests were staged in Beijing and other major cities last weekend. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:13pm, 2 Dec 2022Updated: 5:57am, 3 Dec 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping told European Council President Charles Michel that people protesting against the country’s strict Covid-19 measures are “mainly students” who are “frustrated” after three years of the pandemic, according to senior EU officials.

They said he made the comments during a three-hour meeting in Beijing on Thursday.

Publicly, Beijing has not acknowledged the protests, which in some cases included calls for Xi himself to step down, in several cities last weekend and coverage has been heavily censored. His reported comments are the first known expression of his views on the unrest.

EU officials in the room took Xi’s broader remarks about pandemic controls as a signal that he was ready to further loosen tight restrictions, which have left tens of millions of people under lockdown across the country.

Michel “pleaded for use of vaccines and then raised the question of China’s measures and government measures”, a senior official said.

“And the response we got from the president was explaining why there was protests, claiming that after three years of Covid he had an issue because people were frustrated. It was mainly students, or teenagers in university,” they added.