Hong Kong (CNN) Fear is sweeping through the campuses of China's elite universities following a nationwide government crackdown aimed at silencing left-wing student activists, who had been campaigning for greater rights and protections for ordinary workers.

Since August at least nine young Chinese labor advocates have been forcibly detained in major cities across the country, a sharp escalation in Beijing's campaign against student activism on university campuses.

"The whole of Peking University is like under the white terror now, (the security guards) will come after you even if you were just at the scene where the student activists were distributing leaflets," a student at the prestigious Peking University told CNN Tuesday.

On Friday, one graduate, Zhang Shengye, was attacked and dragged into a car at the Beijing university by several people in black jackets, according to a widely circulated open letter.

"Someone used his arm to put me in a headlock and pushed me forward ... My glasses were missing in the chaos, and I was pressed to the ground," the letter writer and fellow activist, Yu Tianfu, said.

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