Nanjing Photo: VCG

Authorities in Hanshan county, East China's Anhui Province, said Friday that they would deal with local officials who did not live up to expected standards when they raided an off-campus class which clearly violated epidemic prevention rules.

The statement came after a controversial video went viral online Friday, in which a man wearing an arm band smashes a door open and races into the room full of young students before dragging the teacher out of the room. The video widely shared on social media, prompting a huge controversy.

Photo: A screenshot from Sina Weibo

In response to the online reactions, the epidemic control team in Hanshan county released a statement on Friday, explaining that the team members were taking measures to enforce epidemic control regulations.

The team received a report on Thursday morning about undeclared gathering of students in violation of epidemic prevention rules. Community workers then visited the site and spoke to Jia, the man in charge of the site, who promised he would suspend classes in line with local orders.

However, the team received a complaint again on the afternoon that the tutoring was still going on. Police and epidemic-control workers arrived at the venue and removed around 30 students attending a class. However, the staff could not enter one of the rooms despite knocking at the door for about 10 minutes.

Given the circumstances, law enforcement personnel decided to break into the room, as shown in the video. The personnel removed 18 students inside, many of whom were not wearing masks.

Many netizens said it is understandable that the law enforcement staff took necessary measures to prevent gatherings during the epidemic, but criticized the way they had smashed the door and dragged the man out of the room. Some noted that such behavior probably would psychologically harm students in the room. 

Others showed support for law enforcement, stressing that it would be dangerous to run tutoring in crowded venues amid the spike of the Delta variant infections. They referred to the case that an elderly woman in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, who may have inadvertently caused hundreds of infections in the city as she went to a mahjong hall without taking any protective measures.

Anhui is adjacent to the Jiangsu Province, in which major cities Nanjing and Yangzhou are struggling with COVID-19 outbreaks. Yangzhou on Friday noon suspended inbound and outbound rail connections amid a serious COVID-19 resurgence in the city, which as of Thursday had reached 220 infections, including 14 seriously ill and two in critical conditions. Nanjing reported a total of 228 cases in the latest outbreak. 

"The location is not authorized for teaching or holding classes, and it seriously violated the ban on off-campus tutoring during epidemic. We have required it to close and receive punishment," read the statement by Hanshan county.

Hanshan epidemic-control management stressed in the statement that they would seriously deal with the staff members who had resorted to hasty and ill-formed law-enforcement measures. 

It is certainly legitimate for law enforcement to target illegal gatherings during the epidemic, but they are expected to operate in accordance with public standards, Xiong Bingqi, director of 21st Century Education Research Institute in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday.

The incident comes as China is in the process of regulating the private education sector.

A large number of students gathering in a closed room without wearing masks increases the risk of infection. If the private education industry becomes less visible, it may create a big challenge for law enforcement to uncover illegal gatherings and prevent community infection, experts warned.