France is bracing for another day of mass protests on Saturday, with the government promising that 70,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed across the country amid fears that last weekend’s scenes of violence and looting could repeat themselves.
For many Chinese students living in Paris, the events last Saturday were their first taste of a major French protest turned violent. While most said the experience had not put them off staying in France, many said they worried about the country’s broader social, economic and political trajectory – and how the unrest might further boost the far-right.
“I was not really shocked by the scenes of violence,” said Hannah Zhang, who moved to France for graduate school in 2024. “It was more like, ‘Ah, here they go again’.”