I have nothing to add to this Xinhua news flash, as Weibo is quiet at the moment:
A foreign man is dead after being stabbed in downtown Beijing on Wednesday afternoon, local police said.
The foreigner, whose nationality remains unknown, was stabbed by an unidentified assailant at 3:20 p.m. at the entrance to Qudeng Alley in Xicheng district, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said.
The assailant has been apprehended by police officers who were on patrol near the scene of the attack.
The incident is under investigation.
Obviously we’ve heard of assault on foreigners, including stabbings in this very city, and foreigners beating other foreigners bloody, but this is the first death I’ve seen reported in a long time. Updates as they become available, and if you know anything about this, please get in touch: tips@beijingcream.com.
UPDATE, 7/11, 12:23 am: We now know the victim was 62-year-old American Howard Thomas Mills. According to Xinhua:
The 62-year-old victim, named Howard Thomas Mills, was killed at 3:20 p.m. at the entrance to Qudeng Alley in Xicheng district, according to a written statement issued by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau on Wednesday night.
Mills arrived in China on July 3 with an ordinary passport, said the statement.
The suspect, An Libo, was apprehended by police officers who were on patrol near the scene of the attack.
An, 35, is a native of Zhaozhou county in the city of Daqing, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. He arrived in Beijing on Wednesday morning by train from his hometown.
Believed to suffer from a mental disorder, An was found to have attacked and robbed people using a knife in Shanghai in January and then sent back to his hometown, said the statement.
Google and social media searches for “Howard Thomas Mills” didn’t turn up anything.
A foreigner is a douchebag on a train here, and the chinese Internet blows up. A Chinese man is randomely murdered by a mentally insane person abroad, and the Chinese Internet is outraged. But Chinese people pissing on the floors of crowded trains, being rude constantly, or a foreigner randomly murdered here, and they are silent… Business as usual. Talk about double standards.
The American media isn’t gonna lose it’s shit about this incident (if they do, I’ll eat my hat). And they shouldn’t. Most people will recognize this for the tragic, isolated incident that it is. Too bad the Chinese media and the “netizens” rarely can do the same.
Its not isolated though, another guy was knifed in the same area a couple of months back and its also the same place where “nobody knows who he was, where he went or what really happened” attempted rapist was kicked round.
There is no mental health system in place, no psychologists with fluffy sofas nor of course Yukou video of this event, so let’s just call a spade a spade, it was obviously a racially motivated attack considering the Chinese/foreigner ratio in that area.
I didn’t say it wasn’t racially motivated, just that a single incident does not reflect on the entire society. But when a chinese person gets murdered while abroad, the “netizens” collectively shit themselves about how everyone in other countries just hates China.
Incident is an incident of course and shit happens all the time in a city of millions. It’s just good to be aware sometimes. As non-Chinese you are a less than random target. If not racially motivated it is because for a mentally deranged person killing a foreigner will get you ‘noticed’ more. It’s like streaking at the Champions League final rather than just at an amateur game. That’s also the reason why I would advise against getting involved in any street issues. It doesn’t matter how right or helpful you are. You will be a target for some. And in the heat of the moment when all reason is lost and many of the onlookers don’t know what actually happened you will be in a load of trouble.
reading this made me happy
Did he have money? Was the money stolen?