Two are dead and three injured after the third knife attack in the past week in China, this time in Guangxi province. Unlike the previous two incidents, both indiscriminate attacks in Beijing, the suspect on Tuesday had a target: family planning officials in Dongxing city.
AFP/SCMP reports via Xinhua that the suspect has a history of psychiatric illness and has four children: one son and three daughters. His victims were officials whose job it is to enforce China’s one-child policy.
Some netizens expressed sympathy for the man, who can be seen in the above video being cornered and taken down by police.
Some users of the Chinese version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, expressed sympathy for Tuesday’s attacker.
“As long as family planning serves as a means to persecute the people, the people must resist,” wrote one. “How many more people will turn to crime because of this terrible law?”
We are reminded of a forced abortion in the town of Ankang, Shaanxi province last June. That’s unfair, of course, because we shouldn’t imply all family planning officials are the same. And this incident — at least for now — isn’t about the country’s controversial one-child policy. Two are dead today, violently stabbed at their workplace.
Earlier: Chaoyang Joy City stabbing; Carrefour stabbing
(H/T Alicia)