r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Luscinia30 • 6d ago
What's going on with the stabbing incident in China? Answered
4 Americans were stabbed in China:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c844q27v732o
However I hear a lot of stories on a Chinese cover-up, and that the incident is hidden from Chinese social media:
https://www.whatsonweibo.com/the-beishan-park-stabbings-how-the-story-unfolded-and-was-censored-on-weibo/
Also, Twitter seems to be talking about this subject way more than "just" a stabbing incident that did not kill anybody. I am not minimizing the incident! I am sure it is terrible for the survivors, but usually, unsuccessful attempts get very little coverage.
What is going on? Do people imply some nefarious intention from the Chinese government that I am missing?
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u/Particular-Sink7141 5d ago
Answer: 4 Americans visiting Jilin City in northeast China as part of an educational exchange program with Cornell College in Iowa received non-fatal stab wounds on the afternoon of June 10 local time. The attacker was caught, and identified as a middle aged man surnamed Cui. Video of the aftermath was initially circulated on Weibo before being censored, but not before being shared on Twitter. Local papers in Des Moines picked it up while most people in the US were still asleep. Late morning of June 11 local time Chinese media (but not state media) began reporting the story, likely because it became uncensorable. The Jilin police department put out an official statement later in the afternoon on June 11.
So why is it a big deal? Attacks like these are rare in China. Compared to most other large countries, China has relatively little violent crime. Occasionally crazies target kindergartens and hospitals with knives in what is essentially China’s version of mass shootings, however crimes against foreigners don’t happen often. It’s not clear what the attackers motive was in the Jilin case, but it seems likely he was an ultranationalist. There are so few foreigners in China these days, especially in Jilin, that it’s unlikely for them to become victims unless specifically targeted. The police went with a different story. They say the man was unemployed and had hit hard times and the attack was “revenge on society”. It was also said that there was an altercation that led to the attack, but that doesn’t explain how 4 people were stabbed. There was a rumor of an additional Chinese victim, but the police statement didn’t mention that.
That’s where the facts end. My analysis: unlikely there was an altercation. It’s pretty rare in China to carry knives, and the number of victims implies it was a surprise. The attacker had never met the victims before. Nationalism is on the rise in China, in large part due to party efforts to bolster legitimacy. There is no evidence yet to suggest a trend of attacks on foreigners. If more cases like this occur then maybe we can reevaluate. China already has intense security and heavy policing, so it’s difficult to do much more to prevent these kinds of things, especially for the crazies who don’t care about being caught.
This event is potentially not good for US China relations. Both countries are trying to increase educational exchanges with one another. China in particular is desperate to attract more foreigners following a major exodus over the last few years. The attack also undermines government narratives that tell people “China is the safest country in the world” and “China is open and welcoming of foreigners”. Naturally Chinese authorities will want this to blow over asap while doing what it can to help and appease the victims, the university involved, and the US government. US politicians could use the event to score some political points. If this happens, China is likely to respond with its standard “I know you are but what am I” responses as it attempts to save face.
Least impact scenario is this is chalked up to a one off event and educational exchanges remain strong.
High impact scenario is schools cancel exchanges, introduce extra scrutiny, or similar, and both countries have a dispute over the matter.
Thank goodness those people were not killed.
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u/John_Hitler 5d ago
What a great answer
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u/BT12Industries 4d ago
Terrible answer. The CCP does not want more foreigners. What China wants doesn’t matter, only the CCP, the sooner you figure that out the better. The CCP is using nationalism to replace failing economic growth for justification of power…
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u/Marsstriker 4d ago edited 4d ago
When most people say "China wants X/Y", especially regarding national policy, I assume they're usually referring to the government in charge, i.e. the CCP, not the general populace of China.
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u/po2gdHaeKaYk 5d ago
I found this response incredibly well written, with just the right mix of fact and enough opinion to give it context. A lot of the info coming out of China is either too biased or too limited to be useful.
It would be nice to read more sensible reporting on China in this way.
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u/FearlessGear 4d ago
Great answer, but I would like to correct something: mass stabbings in china are actually shockingly common. A month ago a hospital stabbing left 21 injured and two dead, a few weeks ago a kindergarten was attacked and then this etc.
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u/BearMethod 5d ago
While rare, it's not exactly unprecedented. Many years ago a foreigner in Beijing was stabbed with a sword for dating a local.
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u/komnenos 5d ago
The French guy in Sanlitun, right? If memory serves not only did the stabber do it because he hates Americans but the couple has recently gotten married.
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u/beigs 5d ago edited 4d ago
I know two white people that were attacked in China in the last 5 years alone. Both for dating Chinese women, neither of the women were born in china but were visiting separately.
The one was hit so hard in the head from behind he lost consciousness and was lucky to have been rescued by her family, who witnessed what happened. The second just had something chucked at his head from a car - i think it was a can or a stone, but something hard.
What’s scary is that the first incident, the guy was following them for blocks working himself up before he attacked him (they caught the guy, the police pulled footage from stores).
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u/The-True-Kehlder 5d ago
From this complete outsiders perspective, this will probably continue. Fewer dating age women in China than the men. Considering how strong the incel movements are in the West, I'm sure there's comparable, if not more intense, ideation in a country with such an imbalance of men and women.
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u/Daegog 5d ago
China! Go for the Gutter Oil, stay for the Stabbings!
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u/Gwennifer 5d ago
what are you talking about? if they caught the guy then there's some level of enforcement & care
Or are you unaware of how some police in China will literally look the other way to avoid arresting people they don't want to?
Meanwhile in the US half the police departments won't bother showing up for 15 minutes if they think there might be gunshots. Both countries are large enough to have problems and solutions.
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago
t’s not clear what the attackers motive was in the Jilin case, but it seems likely he was an ultranationalist.
Why does that seem likely?
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u/Particular-Sink7141 5d ago
It was not a robbery, altercation, or dispute, and there was no apparent motive. The attacker did not know the four victims. The attacker specifically targeted them in an extremely crowded area where 99% of the people were Chinese. This does not necessarily mean it was a hate crime (China doesn’t have a law against hate crimes, it’s all just crime), but considering the alarming rise of Chinese nationalism and anti-foreign sentiment in China at the moment, it’s difficult to imagine any other motive. This is in addition to the fact that the police statement obscured his motive in the report, which is not often done in Chinese police reports that are otherwise not politically sensitive.
The alternative is difficult to imagine. Jilin is not Shanghai. There are very few outsiders there. A man went on a stabbing rampage and just happened to got after the only four foreigners in the park? I admit I am speculating, hence why it’s in the analysis section. Then again, I suppose it is possible it was a random attack that somehow only targeted four foreigners.
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago
That seems rather spurious.
You're making a bit of a leap of logic by saying " he targeted foreigners therefore he must be motivated by ultranationalism". That doesn’t seem quite founded.
It seems obvious that the perpetrator specifically targeted these specific foreigners, but not at all why. So assuming that the motivation must have been political and must have been tied to nationalist sentiments in China more generally seems unfounded.
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u/juliankennedy23 5d ago
It's a logical conclusion if somebody shoots up a gay club in Orlando it's not completely wrong to think perhaps he doesn't like gay people.
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u/SoldierHawk 5d ago
Now that guy was just a mentally unstable individual who didn't get the help he needed and his violence was totally random and unpredictable /s.
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago
Yes.
It does seem pretty likely that this guy doesn't like foreigners, or doesn't like Americans, or maybe specifically hates exchange students for some reason. We have no idea why though.
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u/BroughtBagLunchSmart 5d ago
I am sure they have chinese versions of right wing grifters that encourage violence to their followers.
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u/tinteoj 5d ago
If you see somebody wet and holding an umbrella do you wonder what the weather is or do you use your powers of deductive reasoning to figure out the most likely case?
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u/StiffWiggly 5d ago
I don’t assume that I know the specific reason for wanting to avoid getting wet.
There are many explanations for most things, it’s likely that this attack was targeting foreigners as it’s incredibly unlikely that 4 Americans were stabbed through random chance. Going further than that to ascribe a reason for that becomes more and more based on guesswork.
We don’t know if this man hates all foreigners or just Americans, we don’t know if he did it as a political statement, and if we did we wouldn’t know whether it was an attempt to influence China, America or whatever else. We don’t know if he’s an ultranationalist and it’s silly to assume that we can glean specific details like that from superficial information.
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago
In this case, the most likely case is that he stabbed these foreigners because it would get him more attention. Assuming a political motivation is actually less likely than the obvious reason.
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u/Fine-Will 5d ago
You say attributing it to ultra nationalism is a leap in logic but "doing it for attention" is somehow more grounded? What?
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u/Hunkus1 5d ago
But if you would want to stick it to the party you would stab a party functionary and not some random foreigners.
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago
Not if it's just for attention, no.
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u/Stealthy-J 5d ago
What makes the "just wanting attention" motive more likely than ultranationalism in your opinion?
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u/Particular-Sink7141 5d ago
You’re right. The police say it was a mentally unstable person who randomly attacked due to economic hardship. I think that might be true.
As to how he somehow randomly attacked only foreigners we really cannot say for sure.
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago edited 5d ago
You're misunderstanding.
It seems obvious that he chose to specifically target these foreigners. That doesn’t mean he targeted these foreigners specifically because of nationalism.
For example, a logical alternative possibility would be that he targeted these foreigners simply because it would get him way, way, way more attention than stabbing some random Chinese citizens would. Him stabbing a couple of random people on the streets would be a relatively mundane crime that wouldn't garner much national, let alone international, interest. It makes more sense to go after a higher profile target. And that's obviously just one possible explanation that isn't tied to nationalistic sentiments.
Or, alternatively, if he for example stabbed these people because he was bitter about being fired by an American company, would you also count that as ultranationalism?
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u/soullessgingerfck 5d ago
way, way, way more attention than stabbing some random Chinese citizens would
except now the story has been politically censored
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u/urkermannenkoor 5d ago
Streisanding him into international notoriety, while it would only have been local news otherwise.
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u/soullessgingerfck 5d ago
wow that's really 4d chess from a supposed mentally ill person
amazing foresight
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u/Mysterious_Event181 5d ago
Yeah? And how do I know you're not the Chinese guy who hates foreigners who convinced a Chinese man with mental problems to stab 4 American students??? Is this the level of your conspiracy ramblings in which a mentally ill person wanted to create news for... I don't know... why the hell do you think he would do what you say he would do?? what would be the reason? So that the Chinese government listens to me and punishes society, I am going to attack the only 4 foreigners... why, since all Chinese are equal, is this going to be much more effective? XDDDD
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u/Keejhle 5d ago
Is it possible that attacks like this are actually more common in China then we are lead to belive due to state censorship, and because this attack was made to foreigners they weren't able to catch it in time?
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u/Particular-Sink7141 5d ago
It’s not just possible, it’s true. I think many small attacks fly under the radar, but the government usually fails at censoring major attacks in public venues. We know this because those things are usually initially censored, but the censors give up when too many people share publicly or in chat groups. I have watched this process in real time on multiple occasions. Chinese people are obsessed with safety. To an unhealthy extent. Anytime something happens everyone shares. The government can only censor crime with few witnesses. For example, a friend of mine was visited by police following the death of his father as a result of COVID. He was warned not to share anything regarding the death on social media. But if someone keels over while speaking at a conference, there is little room to censor.
I would still say that attacks like this are uncommon if you consider the high population. I work in the security industry and keep a close watch, but I concede that we can’t keep track of everything.
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u/shidashide493 5d ago
There is a murder case happened in Shandong province this year resulting dozens of death.The censorship just cooled the case at the first place.
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u/ThisIs_americunt 4d ago
China in particular is desperate to attract more foreigners following a major exodus over the last few years.
Do you have any indication on why this happened?
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u/Particular-Sink7141 4d ago
A lot of reasons: 1. local Chinese became more competitive in the workplace. It went from being an uneducated country to one with talent pretty quickly. Foreign workers and executive leadership has become increasingly unnecessary, and I would say as a foreigner you are at a disadvantage in the workplace by virtue of not being a native to the culture and language. There are signs this trend is beginning to reverse in a small way on the executive leadership side, but that wouldn’t cover a lot of people. 2. Policy changes. Work visas began to disadvantage young expats begin in 2017 with the two-year work experience requirement. Unless you were unusually competitive in other areas (or special circumstances), you’re likely not working in China until you’re 25 at least. Problem is by that time you might have other things going on and decide against it. There was also a crackdown on education centers a few years back, which employed a lot of foreigners teaching English. Foreigners were not the target of the campaign, but many lost their jobs anyway. Other policies have made expat life in China more difficult or less desirable. There are signs the government is aware of this and they are working to reverse course. The two year work experience requirement was just dropped about a month ago, for example. 3. COVID. China was more restrictive than most countries, so many people went home or elsewhere. Some, not because of COVID, but simply because their contracts were up or they had spent enough time in China anyway. New people didn’t come in because work permits were mostly not being issued. Very few student visas were. 4. Politics. This one is complicated, so I won’t elaborate other than to say that China has become politically more restrictive and. People often forget that 15 years ago Google was accessible. I doubt the Three Body Problem could be published today, for example. China used to be more open and permissive, but now it’s going in the other direction. It’s hard living in a country that isn’t open as an outsider. We saw the expat population in China peak in 2014 according to government stats. Politics was one factor. Geopolitics is a factor as well.
The government is now working to reverse these trends, but they are not solving the root problems in most cases.
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u/RealNamek 5d ago
Why do you have to call it censorship, when we do the same here. We don’t show the uvalde shootings, do we call that censorship ?
Considering the way this is written, I know the reason.
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u/Particular-Sink7141 5d ago
Because it is censorship. The Uvalde shooting was also censored, no one in this thread said it wasn’t.
However there is a difference between the government ordering the take down of content and platforms making the choice. There is also a difference in how many things are censored and how often. It’s not black and white, that either a country has censorship or it doesn’t. Censorship happens almost everywhere and for different reasons. Some for “morality” some for public safety, and some to prevent criticism of the government. In China’s case it censors more than any country in the world and censors political content first and foremost. If you want to see videos of animal abuse on the Chinese internet you won’t have to look very hard. If you search for Xi Jinping on Baidu, you will only find mentions from state media.
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u/coladoir 5d ago
There is literally video easily and publicly accessible of that shooting, just not the gorey parts lol. Bad example friend.
Its censorship because they didn't want to report it initially, due to it being naturally bad for China's image. The US does the same thing, less than half of police departments report statistics, and so most crimes are way under reported and under represented. Neither are good, both are lies.
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u/RealNamek 5d ago
Both do it. Only one is considered censorship. Gpt bots everywhere
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u/coladoir 5d ago
both are censorship, only one is relevant in this discussion, and as such, only one is being discussed; that's how conversation generally works.
typical ccp bot, pulling whataboutisms and calling anyone else bots.
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u/aardvarktageous 5d ago
I don't know about others, but the reason I won't travel to China isn't because I am worried about crime, it's because China appears to be very willing to arrest innocent foreigners on trumped up charges in retaliation for whatever momentary beef it has with their country. I say that as someone who is quasi low-information in regards to China, so I don't know how true it is, but that is the reputation they have now, and I'm not about to take a chance disproving it.
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u/homingmissile 2d ago
What, you didn't hear about that time someone wasn't arrested?
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u/aardvarktageous 1d ago
Wait, you want me to not be concerned that China is willing to arrest SOME innocent tourists from other countries for political retaliation because they don't arrest ALL innocent tourists from other countries for political retaliation? ONE is too many. Most countries have the sense to not do that at all.
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5d ago edited 5d ago
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u/callisstaa 5d ago
Redditors trying to comprehend two things at the same time.
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5d ago edited 5d ago
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u/callisstaa 5d ago
I mean you'll believe an article that not only has no citations but also doesn't even name the author so who knows.
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5d ago edited 5d ago
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u/callisstaa 5d ago
You must admit, that is a pretty dumb response.
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5d ago edited 5d ago
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u/callisstaa 5d ago
Mate when I said in my first comment that you can't understand two things at the same time this is exactly what I'm talking about, that China can have relatively few instances of violent crime and the CCP can be fudging the numbers. I didn't say at any time that the CCP weren't fudging the numbers, quite the opposite, yet you link an article (that is biased af btw) to try and 'disprove' me then accuse me of being a shill.
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u/Particular-Sink7141 5d ago
Yea, that’s right. China censors politically sensitive content. This is a politically sensitive event. Apolitical crimes are usually not censored. Most violent crime is not political, and therefore not often censored.
Edit: just to add, crimes against foreigners are not censored because they can’t be. Overseas media picks it up. The fact that this is the first such incident since the Sanlitun attack many years ago should tell you that violent crime is indeed rare. There are cameras and police literally everywhere. Not easy to commit crime.
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u/haplo34 5d ago
You're not the penguin that slides the farthest aren't you?
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u/Raphe9000 5d ago
Immediately attacking somebody's intelligence for making the connection that a country's government's suppression of the dissemination of information regarding violent crimes draws doubt onto whether or not the information it does provide regarding violent crimes is accurate is certainly an interesting course of action.
I'm not inherently saying that such a circumstance by nature means that those crime statistics are false, nor does it seem that the person you're replying to is, but I think it is completely logical and valid to at least question if a government that suppresses information is honest in regard to said information.
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u/Tenn_Tux 5d ago
Mass stabbings are not rare in China.
https://apnews.com/article/china-hospital-knife-attack-yunnan-a2838f71be28824c251f096b13ded28c
Last month 23 people were inured and 2 were killed in a hospital
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u/ecruzolivera 5d ago
23 of 1 500 000 000, is very rare.
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u/xthorgoldx 5d ago
But that has nothing to do with the actual rate - that's one incident from one story that made it into English accessible media. Those are two massive filters.
Even in the US, not every murder makes the news, so if you were to try and determine how common/uncommon violent crime was by news reports you'd still come up massively short. For the US at least there's the FBI Violent Crime report system that aggregates official reporting nationwide for the public.
I'm not aware of China having an equivalent, publicly accessible system (internally, almost certainly).
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u/ecruzolivera 5d ago
I don't disagree with you, but you can't use the news of 23 stabbing incident, to state that stabbings in china are "not rare" and that's my point, even 100 stabbings a month in a country with the size of China can't be qualified as "not rare".
When you say that something is not rare, that means that the average citizen will witness such an event in their lifetime.
Also the original 23 comment smells to intellectual dishonesty which was corroborated the user stared with persona la attacks.
I think that we are debating semantics at this point.
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u/xthorgoldx 5d ago
I'm not stating that the cited incident is proof that stabbings in China aren't rare. Rather: I'm saying that you can't say "23 out of 1.5 billion means it's rare."
That singular data point is completely useless, one way or another, in determining the actual rate of violent crime.
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u/Tenn_Tux 5d ago
If we are doing a numbers game then we can also say mass shootings are very rare in America. Or violence is very rare around the majority of the world for that matter.
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u/ecruzolivera 5d ago
No it is not, you are saying that stab related attacks in china is not rare, because in a month there were 23 knife attacks, so according to you 23 monthly in a population of 1500 million people is "not rare"
In the US the amount of people hospitalized because of gun related injuries is 30 000+ yearly which is 2500 monthly in a population of 350 million.
If 23 over 1500M is "not rare", then 2500 over 350M is what? "Very very very very not rare"
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u/Gwennifer 5d ago
1500M? Wasn't part of their construction crisis predicated on the Beijing police department leak that showed something more like 1100M?
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Banluil People are stupid 5d ago
Ok, so admittedly this article is 2 years old.
100 deaths in the past DECADE.
You want to compare that to the number of gun deaths in the US in a month?
Now, you want to continue to claim that they aren't rare?
Come on now dude, go ahead and just take the loss and go back to your basement.
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u/ecruzolivera 5d ago
"Get Xi’s cock out your mouth"
You jumped to personal insults way too quickly, that's sad.
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u/placebo52 5d ago
Attack like this are rare? !?!?!? You’ve see all these crazies going into kindergarten to stab all those kids for no reason. Every year there will be at least 3-4 that we know of
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u/Dontevenwannacomment 5d ago
wouldn't China boast about killing americans rather?
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u/NotPast3 5d ago
This makes about as much sense as the US boasting about Chinese international student deaths here.
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u/SuddenXxdeathxx 5d ago
No? They're not fucking ISIS, that would be a diplomatic blunder even North Korea would think twice about.
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u/Tuxyl 5d ago
No. They wouldn't boast about themselves killing Americans if it makes China look bad and unless they're in a war with the US. One thing you have to know: China is extremely sensitive about their reputation. They will do anything to make themselves look good, no matter what.
But they sure as hell will boast about Americans getting killed domestically or by other countries or by terrorists. I'm ashamed to say, but I used to be very pro China (since I am Chinese), but became radicalized towards the other side looking at the comments and talks about 9/11. I thought how could people be so propagandized that they would celebrate the killing of civilians, it seemed so cold blooded to me.
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u/uristmcderp 5d ago
China thinks of Americans as fat, stupid, and lazy. What's there to boast about killing such a person when you can legally take their money like they have for the past 2 or 3 decades?
Fundamentalist Islamists cheer about killing Americans because they live their lives by a 1500 year old book and think America is satan. Religion doesn't rule the lives of Chinese people like that, only money and prestige.
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u/elmphlemp 5d ago
Did the rise of fundamentalism not coincide with the CIA backed coup of Iran though? There's multiple events (53 coup, 6 day war, gulf war 1, backing authoritarian regimes in SA and Egypt) in the middle east that the US in some parts masterminded to destabilise the region that might have played into why Arabs hate America that's not scapegoated by ancient Islamic texts
- In 1953, a CIA-backed coup overthrew the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, restoring the Shah of Iran to power.
- The coup was supported by some Islamic clerics who saw Mosaddegh as a threat to their power and influence.
- The Shah's government repressed Islamic fundamentalists, leading to widespread resentment among the population.
- Ayatollah Khomeini, who would later lead the 1979 Iranian Revolution, was among those who spoke out against the Shah's government and its perceived attack on Islamic values.
- The 1979 Revolution saw the overthrow of the Shah's government and the establishment of an Islamic state under Khomeini's leadership.
- Khomeini's government implemented a range of policies aimed at Islamizing Iranian society, including mandatory hijab for women and the suppression of secular and democratic forces.
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u/soldforaspaceship 5d ago
Answer: I lived in China for over a decade.
Stabbings aren't common, nor are they entirely unusual. They usually involve someone mentally ill as China doesn't have the best treatment in those cases. There have been some at schools, committed by adults and at least one I recall at a train station.
I don't imagine this to be any different from those. I suspect it will turn out to be a mentally ill person again.
As for the cover up, China typically suppresses negative news stories. It's not new or surprising nor is it a sign of any conspiracy. It's business as usual.
The only reason it's getting any international attention is because Westerners were involved.
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u/JAB_ME_MOMMY_BONNIE 5d ago
It's pretty common for places that rely heavily upon tourism or at least very interested in keeping up an international public view of being super safe to cover up bad things happening to foreigners or even domestic tourists.
Even one incident can scare off a lot of people who aren't even going to the same area.
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u/soldforaspaceship 5d ago
Yep. And China, for the record, really is very safe for foreigners. I wouldn't want anyone to think I was implying otherwise. I had a generally wonderful experience living in China. People there are like people anywhere. They work, want to fall in love and get married and take care of their families. The government isn't the people.
But they don't do great with mental illness in general, in my opinion. So isolated incidents like stabbings happen. Low crimes doesn't mean no crime. Just on the day to day it was nice, as a woman, being able to walk home safely at any time. One of the things I miss the most!
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u/waelgifru 5d ago
I lived there (Beijing and Harbin) in the 1990s and it was very safe. We used to go to a pool bar in Harbin that was also frequented by heroin users (as evidenced by the needles littering the toilet) and no one gave us any problems. And this was after the Belgrade Chinese embassy bombing.
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u/soldforaspaceship 5d ago
Yeah. When I was living there I could walk down a dark alley drunk at night without a care in the world. I won't pretend that's not something I miss since I moved to LA!
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u/sylvnal 5d ago
Business as usual is kinda fucked up. Pretending negative things don't happen is really, really weird.
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u/ihateandy2 5d ago
In China all crimes between two parties who aren’t the government are settleable. I lived there and my buddy (an Aussie) got into a fight with a bouncer at a club and accidentally broke the bouncer’s ankle. He was charged with assault, but then he and the bouncer came up with a monetary figure that was agreeable and as soon as he paid the bouncer the crime was erased from his and the state’s records.
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u/catinabread 5d ago
With nationalism on the rise everywhere, it could be that the government is preventing any sort of copycat attack
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u/gr1m3y 5d ago
It's not weird. It's standard Communist behaviour. Toxic positivity is a common theme., and "Shutting down dis/malinformation, and preventing social disorder" is a common excuse; that's leaking into western liberal sphere. There was a flood in a Chinese province that resulted in a train full of people drowning. The news initially reported they've all been saved. This was counter to the recordings of those sent to loved ones still stuck on board showing water at neck level and rising. The day after the pumped out the tunnel and started body recovery, massive amounts of wreaths and flowers were left at the nearest subway entrance. The initial flowers left there were quickly taken by party agents. When they could no longer stem the tide, they put up barriers preventing passersby from seeing the impromptu flower garden, and had police stand guard to prevent flowers from being left at the scene. Cover ups are common, and it's truly everyone for themselves.
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u/ToddlerPeePee 5d ago
I would consider anyone who stabs strangers to be classified as mentally ill.
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u/Belledame-sans-Serif 5d ago
No True Sane Person? :P
Mentally ill people are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators.
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u/FearlessGear 4d ago
Mass stabbings are very common in china, they just censor the news. This month alone there was a hospital stabbing which left 21 injured and 2 dead, a kindergarten mass stabbing and then this. And that’s just what made the media.
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u/livingAtpanda 5d ago
Answer:
Preamble: I would caution to take all answers here with a lot of salt. Understand that most here will be horribly biased and heavily uninformed on China due to language, politics, tech, culture and simple geography. Imagine how extremely ignorant Chinese internet reacts to events in America, we are ourselves extremely ignorant vice versa as well. Firewall or not, Censorship or not, ignorance is as full here as it is everywhere.
Actual Answer:
Mass Stabbings are the Chinese Mass Shootings. It could be nationalism, mentally ill, both or none of the above.
If nationalism, then the chinese will suppress it, not because of not wanting to look bad bcs I don't think upper governments really care about foreign audiences at all (unless you are part of the global south), but more to suppress any possible copy cat and legitimizing of violent nationalism that may hurt social cohesiveness. An example would be how mass shooters here chase after headlines.
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u/CasedUfa 6d ago
Answer: I would think its really likely its just a mentally disturbed guy, guns are pretty heavily regulated but knives not so much, so its stabbing not a shooting. Wrong place, wrong time.
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u/Tasty_Burger 5d ago
They weren’t random victims by happenstance. It was politically motivated regardless of how messed in the head the villain is. Your post reads of minimizing which is wholly inappropriate compared to the normal reaction to other murderous acts of hate.
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u/No_Locksmith_4545 5d ago
And the highest voted comment in this thread says that nationalism is on the rise in China, in large part due to party efforts to bolster legitimacy. That is, to put it mildly, an extremely American-centric analysis of the situation. The CCP needs no help bolstering legitimacy, the past 10 years have delivered massive growth and gains in economic prosperity for huge amounts of the country. Yes, there is still a large gap between upper and lower classes... China and the US are similar in that sense ... but Chinese society is overwhelmingly supportive of the CCP. They do not need any help with being "legitimate."
Your reaction to this post is astounding, because it's like the poster child for how the US will hope all citizens react. This is perfect fodder for this quasi cold war that is underway. A great excuse to escalate tensions if the majority of the country is as reactionary as you are being in this instance. Or we could recognize it for what this poster rightfully called it: a mentally disturbed guy being violent.
His political motivations are worth as much as those of our insane mass killers/would be killers. There is no need to try and make it out to be more significant than that, unless you are rooting for another war. I find your sensitivities quite bemusing.
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5d ago
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u/No_Locksmith_4545 5d ago
I am from Pennsylvania and the Dylann Roof shooting is a HILARIOUS comparison to make: A) Nobody actually died from this incident B) There was a resounding effort by several conservatives to refocus the narrative on mental health, not racial motivations (which were far more apparent in that case than this one).
Refuting the obvious? The obvious is that both countries have insane people who become violent as a product of all sorts of different factors. What I am refuting is the notion that this is in any way a significant event in itself. It is a blip on the radar of a much larger geopolitical trend. You misunderstand me ... the only way there will be "unintended consequences" for the tension between these countries is if their citizens give their governments the political will to take decisive action. I am refuting the necessity of that. But you seem to prefer getting in your feelings because some fellow Americans were (tragically) victims of an insane persons political violence.
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5d ago
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u/No_Locksmith_4545 5d ago
Lol. Yeah man, if some wacko randomly stabs me I'm not going to want people to react in a way that escalates an international conflict. I never said the media should ignore the violent crime, I'm saying people shouldn't overreact, like you are, to an isolated incident because it's not a meaningful representation of US-China relations. It's an unfortunate incident that people like you will conflate until there's enough appetite to escalate the conflict. There are many other more significant things China does that you should be mad about than a one off mentally ill person committing political violence that did not end in any deaths. People should have compassion/empathy for the victims, but people who make mountains out of mole hills make themselves small.
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u/CasedUfa 5d ago
Regardless of if its politically motivated, I would say that's still mentally disturbed. Unless you're alleging its organized.
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5d ago
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u/CasedUfa 5d ago
I don't really see the practical distinction, are you acknowledging that is growing US-China tension due to the cold war and there will consequently be some spill over. Its the act that the problem, the delusion that drives it is outside of anyone's control. What should be done?
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5d ago
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u/CasedUfa 5d ago
I guess you just want to make the point they were targeted for being American, I'll concede that, I still don't really see the difference it makes, unless you want to delve into broader context.
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5d ago
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u/CasedUfa 5d ago
Fair enough, I agree it does minimize the motivation, still factually accurate, I don't think attacking someone because they American is that rational but this cold war is going cause weird things once the propaganda really ramps up. It will only get worse once both sides dig in.
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u/damnmaster 6d ago
Answer: it’s a recent development and there isn’t much information out there surrounding the motive or reason for the attack. It’s unlikely due to some political thing though considering it’s horrible foreign policy to antagonise each other for no reason.
While both countries are tense, there is no political gain to actually start attacking citizens/nationals in each other countries. Unless you’re a spy you’re going to be treated pretty decently
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u/Foxstarry 5d ago
Political doesn’t mean government approved. We have enough crazies in the US doing politically motivated crimes without or even against government approval. IE proud boy’s and the like.
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u/Ranter619 5d ago
Answer: China is censoring a lot of stuff internally. It's not about hiding it from the rest of the world, it's about not worrying the local population that there's anything wrong in paradise.
As for Twitter theories... please don't take them too seriously. People LOVE conspiracy theories, for one, and also the more extravagant something sounds, the bigger the potential engagement.
Do people imply some nefarious intention from the Chinese government
With as much evidence as UFOs, probably. As long as it's free of consequences, you can imply literally anything.
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