Following a stabbing incident last month near Shanghai in which a school bus carrying Japanese children was killed, the Japanese Consulate in the city has issued a stern warning to Japanese nationals.
“Recently, there have been stabbing incidents in public places across China (parks, schools, subways, etc.). Please be careful of your surroundings when going out,” the statement said.
The incident in Suzhou city, eastern China’s Jiangsu province, in which a 52-year-old man attacked a Chinese bus attendant and injured a Japanese woman and child, follows a series of incidents targeting Japanese people amid escalating anti-Japanese rhetoric in Chinese state media.
Last August, attackers hurled eggs at a Japanese school in Suzhou and stones were hurled at another school in Qingdao, in eastern Shandong province, after Japan began releasing radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a step strongly opposed by China.
Acknowledging that the attack in Suzhou may have been racially motivated, major Chinese internet platforms have banned hate speech against Japan.
But analysts said the tragedy was just the latest in a string of recent violent incidents that signalled rising social tensions. Four American university professors were stabbed in a park in Jilin province last month, and similar attacks targeting Chinese people have been reported across China this year.
The Chinese government does not release specific data on knife attacks and authorities typically provide few details about their investigations. The Ministry of Public Security said in May that the country has one of the world’s lowest murder and crime rates.
But despite official censorship, video of the stabbing has gone viral on Chinese social media, sparking speculation that social hardship is fuelling growing discontent.
China’s economy has been sluggish due to a long-term slump in the property sector, and economists say the unemployment rate is higher than the official figure of about 5%.
Wang Yaqiu, director of China studies at Freedom House, said the Communist Party’s repressive social system is “accelerating the fragmentation of people.” Isolated individuals may resort to indiscriminate violence to express their anger and alienation. “The economy is also a factor,” he added. “The economic crisis makes life very difficult and creates discontent.”
Chinese security authorities strictly control access to weapons, banning most civilian firearms and restricting even replica guns, and often require people to show identification when buying large knives.
But stabbings remain a regular occurrence: this week in Shenyang, the capital of northeastern Liaoning province, a 64-year-old man killed three people and injured another with a knife, city police said. The suspect reportedly had a history of mental illness.
In mid-June, a 54-year-old man went on a rampage at a Shanghai subway station, wounding three people. In May, an attacker killed two and injured 10 at a primary school in Guixi city, southeastern Jiangxi province. That same month, an attacker killed two and injured 21 at a hospital in Zhenxiong city, southwestern Yunnan province.
Shuai Wei, a lecturer in sociology, social policy and criminology at the University of Liverpool, said there was no official data to suggest a significant increase in knife attacks, but added that any data showing a decline in violent crime rates “should be interpreted with caution”.
“The reliability of China’s crime data is frequently questioned due to under-reporting and possible statistical manipulation for political reasons,” he said.
Wei added that officials may recategorize or under-report crimes to present a more favorable image of the city’s public safety and social stability.
The nature of the recent attacks, typically carried out by middle-aged men against strangers, is reminiscent of a phenomenon known in Japan as “individual terrorism,” in which individuals carry out mass murders to draw attention to their views.
In China, past studies have shown a positive correlation between crime rates and several economic indicators, including inflation, unemployment and the urban-rural consumption and employment gap, Wei said.
“To know whether crime rates will rise over the next five to 10 years, we need to put more effort into understanding how the economic downturn affects not just people’s mental health issues but society as a whole,” he said.
Suzhou authorities hailed the victim, Hu Youping, as a “brave example”. The government said the bus driver “rushed forward without hesitation” to confront the attacker and save the children’s lives. The Japanese embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shanghai flew flags at half-mast to “show respect for Hu’s noble actions”.
But Chinese officials made no mention of the Japanese victims, a move analysts say is wary of undermining a glamour offensive this year to lure back tourists and students, including expanding visa-free entry to more countries.
China’s foreign ministry this week denied suggestions the attack in Suzhou had any wider significance. “Such isolated incidents can happen in any country in the world,” a spokesman said, adding that Beijing protects foreigners as well as its own citizens.
But commenters on China’s microblogging platform Weibo said the government was indebted to President Hu Jintao because his heroism had saved Beijing from serious international embarrassment.
“If a busload of foreign children had been killed, the international repercussions would have been enormous,” the commenter said.
