China's schools, forced online by virus, run into censors

Middle school history teacher Louis Wang's work desk with laptop and textbooks at home in northeast China, Feb 27. He said his workload has ballooned due to the arduous process through which online classes must be approved. — Louis Wang via AP

BEIJING: Less than 30 minutes into a lecture on bioinformatics, Chu Xinjian's class was abruptly cut short.

It was the first day of an unusual semester. Across China, schools are shut indefinitely in a bid to contain a new virus that has killed some 3,000 people. Chu's class was one of tens of thousands of courses, from grade school to university, that have been forced online.