Muthomi Ireri
The fatal stabbing of two people by a man at a residential compound in southern China has ignited an online debate that has gained momentum during a summer marked by a spree of similar crimes across the country.
Following the June 28 killings in the Guangxi region, national attention quickly shifted to another stabbing incident thousands of miles away. This was followed by two more unrelated attacks in public places, resulting in seven deaths across four provinces within two weeks.
The circumstances of each case varied: one perpetrator had been in a drunken argument, while another had a history of mental illness, according to police. All cases are still under investigation, and limited information has been released about the suspects or their motives.
China, with a population of 1.4 billion, generally has low violent crime rates and very strict gun controls. However, the country has experienced several high-profile stabbing cases in recent decades, including multiple attacks at schools.
What stands out about the latest stabbings is the social media debate they have sparked. Experts say this debate reflects a growing sense of anxiety and discontent that has spread across the nation as the economy struggles to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
China’s economy, the world’s second largest, has been beset by numerous problems, including a property crisis, weak consumer spending, regulatory crackdowns, and high youth unemployment. Economists fear the country could face years, if not decades, of stagnation. These concerns were evident on Chinese social media after the latest attacks, with several commentators linking the country’s dire economic circumstances to the violence, even as the attackers’ motives remained unclear.
“We should be nicer to others, especially given the economy is not doing well these past two years,” one user wrote on the social media platform Weibo. “Many people are struggling and their emotions are unstable.”
Many others echoed this sentiment. “Try not to argue with people outside,” another Weibo user wrote. “You never know if they are unhappy in life and might take it out on others.”
Experts caution that these messages don’t necessarily reflect the reality of the stabbings. Authorities haven’t released much information about the suspects besides their age and gender. We don’t know anything about their personal lives or financial backgrounds, and in some cases, it’s unclear whether the attackers knew their victims.
The stabbings this summer have garnered significant online attention. For example, one related hashtag was viewed more than 64 million times on Weibo. This is despite the fact that overall violent crime in China—already extremely low compared to many other countries—has been declining in recent years, according to state media reports.
Michelle Miao, an associate law professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, suggests that the online speculation might mirror the public’s own concerns as the economic slump drags on.
“Normally when people are reflecting on these issues, when they are making their own interpretations of social events, they are using this event … to reflect their own emotions, their own thinking … as a mirror of the current social reality,” she told CNN.
Dj Vnyash
