China: Hundreds of Parents Protest Post-Pandemic Fall of Tutoring Company in Beijing

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Beijing on Monday, most of them parents demanding refunds after a private tutoring company called Youwin Education went out of business.

The demonstration was unusual in the tightly-controlled capital of Communist China, especially since it came on the very day that Chinese officials claimed the national economy came roaring back from the coronavirus in the third quarter with nearly five percent growth.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) described Youwin Education as a company with “hundreds of outlets nationwide” that became “the latest in a long list of Chinese private education institutions that closed up shop in 2020.”

“The offline education and training sector has been one of the hardest hit by the virus, as lockdowns and social distancing forced many companies out of business,” the SCMP noted.

Angry clients of Youwin Education marched outside the company’s apparently abandoned office in Beijing on Monday, demanding restitution for the tuition they paid. According to the SCMP’s report, a “heavy police presence” surrounded the event, but only one demonstrator appears to have been temporarily arrested.

The demonstration occurred on the same morning that Beijing claimed 4.9 percent economic growth in the third quarter, an estimate presented as evidence that China’s economy is recovering much more rapidly from the coronavirus than anywhere in the Western world.

The SCMP viewed the Youwin protest as one of several “inconsistencies in the official data” that raise “doubts about its reliability,” including disappointing investment numbers and lackluster consumer spending. The Beijing protesters were apparently worried their concerns would be overlooked or suppressed by the government because it prefers to talk about robust economic growth and rapid recovery.

In September, the SCMP described “two very different recoveries” in China, citing data from an independent research firm called China Beige Book that argued “most firms in most regions are seeing a far more muted recovery” than the showpiece firms headquartered in elite cities and touted by the Chinese government.

“There are two very different Chinese economic recoveries right now. Beijing is lying about at least one of them,” China Beige Book asserted, noting that responses to its survey from over 3,300 Chinese firms were significantly different from the official government numbers.