On November 8th, after reaching its peak, the Zhengzhou university students’ large-scale event “Night Riding to Kaifeng” was abruptly paused by the authorities overnight. What nerve did this seemingly harmless event strike in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Why is the CCP afraid of collective student activities?
On Friday night, November 8th, Zhengzhou university students once again took over all shared bikes and set out for Kaifeng, 50 kilometers away, after successfully organizing a mass cycling event last weekend.
According to mainland media Observer Net, on the evening of November 8th, there was heavy traffic on the East Fourth Ring Road of Zhengzhou, causing severe congestion. Parts of the Zhengkai Avenue from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng were completely occupied by the “cycling army”.
A resident of Zhengzhou mentioned that it usually takes just over an hour to drive from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng, but now it’s likely impossible to reach in 3 hours. “There are those riding bikes, riding electric bikes, walking, sightseeing, too many people.”
A netizen commented, “Zhengzhou’s East University Town is near the Zhengkai Avenue from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng, with a cluster of schools and tens of thousands of students. It’s not uncommon to see tens of thousands of people at a comic exhibition.”
Li Hua, a university student from the Longzihu neighborhood in Zhengzhou, said his school had been monitoring the trend of students riding to Kaifeng and required students to report to teachers before joining.
Li Hua mentioned that starting from noon on the 8th, it was nearly impossible to find a shared bike, and it took a lot of effort to finally find one. He and his classmates set out from Longzihu and arrived in Kaifeng after over 6 hours.
Mr. Lin, a resident of Zhengzhou, also made plans to join the cycling group that day. He struggled to find a shared bike until he was only 10 kilometers away.
Online complaints from Zhengzhou residents emerged, lamenting the difficulty in finding shared bikes as they were mostly left in Kaifeng.
According to Zhengzhou Evening News report from July 2017, Zhengzhou already had up to 390,000 shared bikes, with plans to halt further bike deployments.
The trend of Zhengzhou university students night riding to Kaifeng has been emulated by students from various universities across the country. Videos on X platform show Beijing students starting night rides to Tiananmen Square, Wuhan students to East Lake Lingbo Gate, Chengdu students to Dujiangyan, Hefei students to Chaohu, and Nanjing students to Ma’anshan. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the authenticity of these videos.
The rise of the “Night Riding to Kaifeng” event can be traced back to June this year when four female students rode from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng to taste the famous soup dumplings, sharing their journey on short video platforms which quickly went viral.
In early November, the enthusiasm of Zhengzhou university students “night riding” to Kaifeng escalated. Their slogan was “Youth has no price, night riding is in the moment.”
The event attracted widespread participation from students and citizens. At that time, authorities supported it as a commercial opportunity, and Kaifeng’s city government even announced free access to multiple attractions for students at night.
Kaifeng also prepared resting beds, free food, buses to tourist spots for students, and even offered free acupuncture and therapy for students feeling unwell.
However, after the peak of the “Night Riding to Kaifeng”, the official stance drastically changed nearly overnight. The once fiery “Night Riding to Kaifeng” was abruptly halted.
In the early hours of November 9th, the “Kaifeng Rong Media” WeChat account published “Youth needs passion but also safety”.
Footage on November 9th morning showed law enforcement officers alerting that Kaifeng was experiencing traffic congestion and accommodations and dining facilities were overwhelmed. Citizens were urged to orderly return, and free buses were available for those in need.
On November 9th, three major shared bike platforms jointly announced that bikes would be forcibly locked if ridden outside designated areas. Subsequently, traffic police in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng issued temporary bans on non-motorized vehicles on sections of Zhengkai Avenue in Zhengzhou and Kaifeng.
On November 9th, Beijing Daily also commented that Zhengzhou university students night riding to Kaifeng was not just about following trends but about the zeal of youth.
Although officials attributed the ban to causing traffic chaos, a leaked internal notice from a university in Henan circulated online stating that the number of people riding to Kaifeng had exceeded 200,000, including bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and a significant number of outside participants, including “malicious anti-social elements and foreign hostile actors.”
The notice required students who had left on leave to return to campus before 6 a.m. and unless under special circumstances, guarantee not to participate. It also mentioned that from the following day, bikes from Zhengzhou wouldn’t be able to reach Kaifeng, and Kaifeng’s parks would resume previous operating hours.
There were rumors online that the Henan Provincial Education Department had labeled the night riding to Kaifeng incident as a political movement, leading to several schools announcing closures. Schools in Xi’an, Shanxi, Luoyang, and other places issued notices, starting to control student access to schools.
Furthermore, schools warned students in WeChat groups, stating, “The department has made calls; this incident has developed into a political movement, participation could ruin your life.” Students were asked to contact those participating in night rides to return promptly.
The recent large-scale “Night Riding to Kaifeng” by Zhengzhou university students did not express any political dissatisfaction or engage in any anti-CCP behaviors. Many students held flags and sang the national anthem, receiving a warm welcome from the Kaifeng locals.
Why did the official stance change drastically overnight, touching that sensitive nerve in the CCP?
Renowned commentator Cai Shunkun commented on X platform that the CCP fears young people organizing spontaneously, much like the previous Blank Paper Movement. Young people express their presence in a unique way which is an alternative expression in authoritarian societies. It is unknown what these young people want to express, whether it is about graduating into unemployment or hoping for more attention to their difficult circumstances through such impoverished travels.
On the nights of October 26th and 27th, some Halloween venues in Shanghai, like Julu Road and Zhongshan Park, became targets of the authorities’ stability maintenance policy. Many people wearing Halloween costumes were arrested, including those dressed as Buddha. Students were also instructed not to participate in “unofficial activities.”
Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, remarked that the CCP government is highly alert to any form of public assembly, particularly uncontrolled crowds. Groups gain a form of power collectively, which is considered unpredictable and potentially dangerous by those in power. Thus, even events without political intentions, such as Halloween, become targets that need to be “maintained.”
Similar occurrences can be traced back to the 2004 Hunan TV entertainment show “Super Girl”, which had a massive impact. Its democratic open audition model garnered immense popularity with participants, but the show was terminated after just three seasons.
A netizen commented, university students’ night riding event is not a social movement but bears some characteristics of one. What’s more crucial is whether to pay attention to whether the participation in the event causes a change in societal mentality and if the event itself will veer in certain directions.
Another netizen noted, when students or young people gather and act collectively around non-political issues, authorities quickly respond out of inexplicable fear, politicizing the entire event with their actions. Sometimes authorities successfully halt the event’s further development, but eventually, they fail, turning society political, which ultimately backfires on them.
Currently, China’s economy is declining, and societal pressure has reached a critical point. In August, the national urban youth unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds, excluding students, was still as high as 18.8%; it remained at 17.6% in September, the second-highest this year.
A netizen remarked on youth unemployment mishandling could become a political catalyst. Nowadays, there are still “elders” to rely on, but in the future when pension funds dry up, won’t chaos ensue? Between 1990 and 2010, 360-380 million people were born, and these young people will someday become a societal nuisance with too many unstable elements.