The Chinese consulate in Auckland has called on local police to investigate a “racially motivated” attack on a Chinese teenager.
The 16-year-old boy was attacked by unknown assailants on a bus in the city at about 9am on Friday, a public holiday marking Matariki, the Maori new year.
The boy, who had been living in New Zealand for seven years, was attacked by a woman with a metal bar, according to the New Zealand Herald.
“A woman started verbally abusing me and then shortly after she started physically abusing me,” the boy, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper.
The paper described the incident as “racially motivated” and said the woman shouted racist slurs at the boy before attacking him, breaking three of his teeth and damaging two more.
Mao Peng, an independent Auckland-based Chinese journalist who goes by the name “Portia” on X (formerly Twitter), said a 75-year-old Chinese man on the bus intervened and prevented the boy from suffering further injury.
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Man with an axe attacks customers at Chinese restaurant in New Zealand
Man with an axe attacks customers at Chinese restaurant in New Zealand
The man told Mao that just before the bus was due to depart, a passenger who appeared to be a heavy-set Maori woman in her 40s boarded the bus carrying a metre-long iron bar.
Mao also spoke with the boy’s mother, who said her family emigrated to New Zealand about seven years ago, and that her son had been on his way to play basketball with friends at the time of the incident.
The Chinese Consulate in Auckland said it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the incident and activated the consulate’s emergency response mechanism as soon as it learned of the incident and contacted the family to offer its condolences.
Police told the newspaper they are still searching for the perpetrator.
Foreign Minister Wang described China-New Zealand relations as a “force of stability” and announced that New Zealanders would be able to visit the country visa-free for stays of up to 15 days.
“The risks Chinese people face abroad are far greater than the risks foreigners face within China,” Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid Global Times, wrote on social media platform Weibo.
