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Phoebe Zhang

The man accused of stabbing a Japanese boy on the way to school in Shenzhen this week has a criminal record and no steady employment, according to police who have released more information about the suspect than is usual in similar cases in China.
The suspect, a 44-year-old man surnamed Zhong, was reportedly detained by Dongguan police in 2015 for damaging public telecommunications facilities and released on bail, the state-owned Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported on Friday.
The report said that in 2019, he was put in administrative detention – a maximum of 15 days – by Shenzhen police for “fabricating facts to disrupt public order”.
Zhong confessed to attacking the boy on Wednesday, the Shenzhen outlet said, citing police.


The police have called this week’s case “isolated”, saying the alleged attacker had no accomplices. The case was being investigated, authorities said.
In an incident in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in June in which a Chinese woman was killed trying to stop a man attacking a Japanese mother and child with a knife, police only described the attacker as a 52-year-old unemployed man surnamed Zhou.
No further details were given months after the attack, including information about the attacker or any punishment stemming from the crime.
In previous cases, whether concerning Chinese or foreign nationals, information about attackers is seldom disclosed, including in viral cases that attract huge attention online. Online discussion is often censored to quell concerns about social stability and possible ill feeling or opposition towards the Communist Party.
According to the Shenzhen media outlet, the child attacked on Wednesday was driven to the nearby Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone Hospital by ambulance. A team of doctors from various hospitals in Shenzhen provided expertise but the child, who was badly hurt, died on Thursday morning, the report said.
Shenzhen’s education bureau is reported to have organised a team to provide counselling to students and the government has vowed to aid the victim’s families and friends. Shenzhen will increase security around the school and nearby public areas to prevent other incidents, according to the report.
Since the attack, state media has set the tone in condemning the violence while offering assurances to foreigners that China is an open and secure environment for them to travel, study and conduct business in. In a commentary published on Friday, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily said illegal violent acts must be punished.
“Using violence to harm the innocent, especially children, challenges the bottom line of human civilisation and is a provocation to our law,” it said.
It said the stabbing crime did not represent the Chinese people, and that a few “extreme cases” did not equal “the whole society’s positive energy”.


Meanwhile, online discussion of the matter has been censored, including WeChat articles apologising to the child.
Some netizens said it was unacceptable that the attack occurred in the Shekou area in Shenzhen, where the city’s reforms began more than 40 years ago.
The district is regarded as one of the most progressive, popular and affluent residential areas in southern China and is home to most of the city’s foreign community and international schools.


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Chinese paramilitary police officers march past the entrance of the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Thursday. China has expressed “regret and sadness” after a Japanese schoolboy died after being stabbed on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Japanese child’s fatal stabbing in China is an ‘isolated case’, Beijing says

Chinese authorities inspect the scene of a stabbing at the Shenzhen Japanese School on Wednesday. A 10-year-old student attacked by a man died on Thursday. Photo: Kyodo

Security guards put up a curtain to cover the name of the Nanshan district school, as well as placing a box for mourners to put flowers in. They allowed the media take photos before taking the flowers away. Photo: Phoebe Zhang

Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa speaks to journalists in Tokyo on Thursday about the stabbing death of a Japanese child in China. Photo: Kyodo

A floral tribute to a child fatally stabbed in Shenzhen is left outside a school in Nanshan district on Thursday. “Though separated by mountains and rivers, we share one moon under the same sky,” the card says. Photo: Phoebe Zhang

A young Japanese boy was attacked by a man with a knife on Wednesday while on his way to school in Shenzhen, southern China. Shutterstock

Outrage after China officials say schoolgirl stabbed 200 times with sewing awl ‘not bullying’

Outrage has erupted in China after officials claimed that a boy who stabbed his classmate over 200 times with a sewing awl did not meet the standards of bullying. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/QQ.com/Taobao

In addition to being stabbed over 200 times, the girl revealed that she was also attacked with a paper cutter, slapped, and forced to eat paper and pencil lead. Photo: news.china.com

The case has elicited strong reactions online, with some stating that it goes beyond school bullying and constitutes a criminal assault. Photo: news.china.com

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China

Politics

Information about the sensitive case is tightly controlled by Chinese police, media and internet censors


Information about the sensitive case is tightly controlled by Chinese police, media and internet censors.
