Deadly Zhuhai car attack sparks questions in China
A car attack in China that killed 35 people has raised questions about a recent spate of public violence, while officials continue to review discussions about the incident.
On social media, many people are discussing the social phenomenon of “revenge society,” in which individuals attack strangers due to personal grievances.
Police said a driver who plowed into a crowd at a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai on Monday night was motivated by dissatisfaction with a divorce settlement.
While it is considered the deadliest act of violence China has known in decades, there have been a series of attacks in recent months, including a knife attack at a supermarket in Shanghai and a knife attack on a school in Beijing.
As the incident in Zhuhai sparked a nationwide outcry, President Xi Jinping vowed to “severely punish” those responsible. Police said the arrested 62-year-old driver was in a coma due to self-inflicted injuries.
On Chinese social media platforms, many expressed shock at his behavior and asked whether it was a sign of deeper social problems.
One comment that went viral on Weibo read: “Your family’s life is not going well, how can you retaliate against society? You have taken the lives of so many innocent people, can you still feel at ease?”
“If there is a general lack of job security and huge survival pressure… then society must be full of problems, hostility and terror,” said one WeChat user.
“We should look at the deep-rooted social (factors) that encourage so many indiscriminate (attacks) on the weak,” another netizen wrote in a widely shared post.
There have been reports of a number of violent attacks in China this year, including a large-scale knife and gun attack in Shandong in February that left at least 21 people dead.
In October, a knife attack occurred at a top school in Beijing, injuring five people; in September, a man attacked with a knife in a supermarket in Shanghai, killing three people and injuring several others.
Many posts, comments and articles about the events in Zhuhai have come under censorship in recent days as officials limit discussion of what appear to be politically sensitive topics. In China, it is common for censors to quickly remove social media posts related to high-profile crimes.
Still, some emotional comments raising questions about the incident are still widely circulated online. The BBC was unable to independently verify the accounts.
One person said a family friend was doing an evening exercise with a walking group when she was killed in the attack.
The person wrote: “My mother had a hard time coming to terms with the loss of such a close friend. The more I witnessed her grief, the more I resented the cold-blooded murderer.”
They also accused Chinese media of “barely covering” the incident while giving more coverage to a high-profile military air show in Zhuhai.
“In the eyes of those in power, airplanes are more important than human lives.”
Several Chinese media outlets told BBC Chinese that in the first few hours after the incident, they received clear instructions not to report on it.
Since then, news media have reported on the attack, mainly targeting the police and Xi Jinping’s statements.
But state broadcaster China Central Television did not mention the attack in its midday news on Wednesday, focusing instead on President Xi Jinping’s upcoming trip to South America and the Zhuhai Air Show.
China Daily’s main page also made no mention of the worst public violence in years.
Another widely circulated post was written by a person who said his mother was seriously injured in the attack and was being treated in a hospital’s intensive care unit.
The person said it was unclear whether their mother survived and their father, who witnessed the attack, was in shock. “His heart is broken but he continues to do his best to calmly respond to phone calls and everyone who cares about my mom.”
They also criticized the lack of information in the hours after the incident.
They said: “Ten hours after the incident, there are still no casualty statistics and no police statement has been issued.”
Other users noted that it took authorities 24 hours to announce the full death toll of 35 people. The Weibo social media platform also censored hashtags mentioning the death toll.
Additional reporting by Wang Fan.
