Rising Trend of Knife Attacks in China: Examining Motives and Implications

2023-07-10 11:19:17

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China was shaken by another knife attack.

Six people, including three children, were killed in a stabbing incident at a kindergarten in southeastern China’s Guangdong Province.

Police said they arrested a 25-year-old man whose surname was Wu in Lianjiang City.

And the French Press Agency quoted a local official as saying that the other victims were: a teacher and two parents. Another person was injured in the accident.

Police described the incident as “intentional assault” but gave no details regarding a possible motive for the crime.

The attack took place on Monday at 07:40 am local time, while the children’s parents were dropping off their children to attend summer lessons. The man who carried out the attack was arrested at 8 am.

A shop owner working near Al-Rawda told the BBC that the area around the scene of the accident had been sealed off.

The population of Lianjiang City is regarding 1.87 million.

As videos of the attack circulated on Chinese social media, the incident sparked outrage and shock among the users of those sites.

The stabbings fit a disturbingly common pattern in China.

Firearms are banned in China but the country has seen a spate of knife attacks in recent years, although there was also an incident in which an attacker used chemical spray to harm a class of 50 children.

The BBC has counted at least 17 knife attacks in schools, colleges and universities since 2010. Ten of those occurred between 2018 and 2023.

In August last year, a knife-wielding attacker stormed a kindergarten in south-eastern Jiangxi Province, killing three people and wounding six others.

In April 2021, two children died and 16 others were injured during a mass stabbing in Beiliu City, located in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

In October 2018, 14 children were injured in a knife attack on a kindergarten in Chongqing County, southwest China.

The perpetrators, in most of these cases, were male and expressed grudges once morest the community. Similar patterns have been seen in mass killings in other countries, from the United States to Japan. But experts say there may be additional reasons for the apparent increase in mass stabbings in China.

These experts believe that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced Chinese cities to endure some of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world, may be one of the reasons. The following-effects are not yet fully understood, but they may include feelings of anger and resentment, including loss of jobs, investments, and human relationships.

Another possible factor mentioned is the high stress and high expectations placed on young men in Chinese society. This situation is exacerbated by the high levels of youth unemployment and the widening gap between the rich and the poor. One expert told the BBC that a strong sense of “social exclusion” might lead some to use violence to vent their frustrations with society.

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Crowds gather outside a kindergarten in Guangxi Province following a knife attack that injured 29 children and three adults in April 2010.

The Chinese authorities have strengthened security around schools since 2010. That year, the Ministry of Public Security called on local authorities to “take firm and firm measures” once morest criminal activities in order to ensure the safety of teachers and students.

After the April 2021 attack, the Ministry of Education ordered emergency evacuation exercises inside schools.

Fearing that attacks might mimic the style of previous attacks, Beijing also does not allow state media to publish full details of Monday’s incident in kindergarten.

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