What is happening?
In recent weeks, China has seen a surge of mass attacks, many of which turned deadly. The attackers, killing and injuring dozens of people in car rampages and knife attacks, are ordinary citizens – many of them are middle-aged men “taking revenge on society” (報復社會) amid growing personal grievances and frustrations. These attacks, in a country with strict gun laws and a generally high perception of safety, have once again sparked discussions about the security and internal volatilities within the Chinese society.
What is the broader picture?
The latest attack happened on Tuesday, November 19, when a small SUV drove into a crowd of children in front of an elementary school in Changde, Hunan Province. Several people, both children and adults, were injured. Just three days earlier, on November 16, eight people were killed, and 17 were injured in a stabbing attack at a vocational school in Yixing, a city in southern Jiangsu province. The attacker, a 21-year-old student, had failed his examination and could not graduate. He was also reportedly unhappy with his internship pay.
What is believed to be the deadliest public violence incident in decades occurred on Monday, November 11. Thirty-five people died, and 43 were injured after a 62-year-old man, Mr. Fan, dissatisfied with the settlement of his divorce case, drove into a crowd of people exercising in front of a sports stadium in Zhuhai, southern China.
On October 28, an elementary school in Beijing’s Haidian district faced tragedy when a 50-year-old man launched a knife attack, killing three children and two adults. Earlier in October, a 37-year-old man stabbed three people to death and wounded 15 in a Shanghai supermarket. He had come to Shanghai to “vent his anger due to a personal economic dispute.”
As private ownership of guns is strictly forbidden, homemade explosives, cars, or knives have been the most common weapons used in such public attacks.
Some of the attacks are also racially motivated. In September, a 10-year-old Japanese student died in Shenzhen, South China, after being attacked in front of his school. In June, during a knife attack at a bus stop for a Japanese school in Suzhou, a mother and her child were injured, while a Chinese woman trying to protect them died. After the car attack, the Japanese embassy issued a warning to its citizens living in China to “avoid speaking Japanese loudly in public.”
Why does it matter?
The recent surge of public attacks has once again launched discussions on the phenomenon of “taking revenge on society,” where “weak” individuals act out of frustration with their personal circumstances (often economic), exclusion from society, or feelings of injustice or lack of recognition. Unable to find a solution or social and psychological relief, they attack random groups of people or more vulnerable targets—such as children who cannot defend themselves—in public spaces.
Chinese society is not healthy. As one comment on Free Weibo says: “A healthy society must allow people to speak, have a reasonable place, and have a means to express their grievances. Instead of going towards prevention and control for everyone, it is better to open up the channels for justice.” (健康的社会得让人说话，得有讲理的地方，得让人有诉说委屈的渠道。与其走向人人防控，不如疏通争取公义的渠道。)
