By Brenda Goh
WUSHI, China (Reuters) – A former student went on a stabbing rampage at a vocational college in eastern China, killing eight people and injuring 17, police said on Sunday in the country’s worst stabbing rampage. A few days after the deadliest attack, the search for more souls began. A decade
Saturday’s stabbing took place at the Wuxi Vocational College of Arts and Technology in Yixing, a section of Wuxi city in the eastern province of Jiangsu. The suspect, a 21-year-old man, was arrested at the scene and confessed to the crime, police said.
Also on Saturday, authorities in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai said they had charged a 62-year-old man who they said drove his car into a crowd outside a sports stadium, killing 35 people on Monday night. killed and 43 injured.
According to scant details released by the police, in both cases, the accused resorted to deadly violence against unrelated passers-by after suffering financial loss.
The deaths touched off an unusual and heavily censored online debate over mental health in China, deepening pressures from a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy and whether young people see themselves worse off than generations before them. will feel that those who benefited from China’s rapid growth.
At least six other high-profile knife attacks have been recorded across China this year.
Police in Wuxi said the stabbing suspect was angry over not receiving his graduation certificate, failing exams and not being paid.
“According to preliminary investigation, the suspect attacked others after failing the exam and not receiving his graduation certificate, as well as being dissatisfied with his internship compensation,” the Yixing Public Security Bureau said in a statement.
At the school on Sunday, a Reuters witness saw students leaving with suitcases, although one student, who did not want to be named, said classes were still in session.
“They were just 18, 19-year-olds. It’s so sad and sad,” said a man who reached out to place a bouquet of chrysanthemums near one of the school’s gates, giving his surname Duan.
“We really have to provide better psychological guidance to young people,” he added.
Security quickly removed the bouquet.
Police said the Zuhai suspect was allegedly angry over the terms of the divorce settlement.
Fudan University professor Qiu Weigu said recent cases of “indiscriminate revenge against society” in China have some common characteristics: disadvantaged suspects, many with mental health problems, who were believed to be unfit for their lives. have been treated fairly and who feel they have no other. How to listen.
“It is important to establish social safety nets and psychological counseling mechanisms, but to minimize such cases, the most effective way is to open public channels to monitor and expose the use of force. ,” Qiu posted on Chinese social media. Media platform Weibo (NASDAQ:
By Sunday afternoon, censors had removed the short article.
Wuxi Vocational College offers courses to prepare students to work in industries including wire and cable manufacturing, interior design, marketing and other fields, its website says.
Junior colleges and others like them are part of a drive to direct more young people to job-related training rather than to oversubscribed universities as youth unemployment balloons.
Trends in online debate over the past year have focused on less optimism about change for jobs, incomes and opportunities in China. One of them – “the garbage time of history” – began as shorthand for the economic depression of the summer.
In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have undertaken stimulus measures to revive the economy. Monday’s car attack also prompted an intervention from President Xi Jinping, who urged local police to “strengthen their control over threats” by identifying people who are at risk of being killed.
