Campus riot rocks central China university

BEIJING, June 20 (Reuters) Thousands of university students in central China smashed windows and ransacked their campus in a riot sparked by anger over the wording of their diplomas, participants and officials said today.

The unrest in Zhengzhou, the capital of the central province of Henan, began on Thursday night with students angry that their diplomas would not be from Zhengzhou University but from a less prestigious college affiliated with it.

''Give us back our Zhengzhou University diplomas!'' students from the Shengda Economics Trade and Management College shouted, according to a report in Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper.

Pictures posted online showed broken glass and debris strewn outside dormitories, small fires and smashed car windows.

About 100 riot police had since sealed off the campus, barring students from coming and going freely, and Internet access had been cut off to prevent word of the unrest from leaking, said one student who took part.

Unrest of any kind is highly sensitive in China, whose Communist government prizes stability and brooks no challenges to its power.

But campus protests are an even more potent symbol because of a historic legacy of student activism, most recently in the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations on Tiananmen Square.

Nonetheless, a widening gap between rich and poor, corruption and official abuses of power have fuelled a growing number of demonstrations and riots around the country, often sparked by seemingly minor issues.

The participants in the campus riot said students began ransacking their dormitories, throwing fire extinguishers and using fire hoses to flood the halls, before spilling into the street where they smashed shop windows and streetlamps.

''Seven or eight students were singing and crying 'let's carry on the revolution to the end' and saying we shouldn't fear the police,'' said the student, who declined to give his name.

During talks with university officials several days later, students threw water bottles at the administrators, he added.

A university official, who also did not want to be named, said it was unlikely anything could be done to change the students' diplomas, which had already been issued by the Education Ministry.

With more students graduating into the workplace this year than ever before, competition for jobs is fierce, but the official said the students, who studied economics and management, were in a good position to find work.

Police declined to comment on the unrest.

But the university official said students were ''under supervision'' and were in the process of being identified before any could be arrested or detained.

REUTERS KD RN1509