Reuters
People lay flowers outside Zhuhai stadium after attack
China executed a man convicted of killing at least 35 people in a drive-by attack in November, in what is considered the deadliest attack in the country in a decade.
Fan Weiqiu, 62, injured dozens of others when he rammed his car into people exercising outside a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai.
State media said a second man was executed for another attack days later. Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people in a stabbing attack at his university in Wuxi, in the east of the country.
Authorities said Fan was motivated by “dissatisfaction” with how his assets were divided after his divorce, while Xu carried out his attack after “failing to graduate due to poor test scores.” examinations”.
Fan was arrested at the scene on November 11, where police said he was found with self-inflicted injuries.
In December, he was found guilty of “endangering public safety”, with the Zhuhai Intermediate People’s Court calling his motives “extremely despicable” and the methods used “particularly cruel”.
His execution on Monday comes less than a month after he was sentenced to death by the court.
In Xu’s case, police said he confessed to his crime “without hesitation” on November 16. He was sentenced to death on December 17, after the court ruled that the circumstances of his crime were “particularly bad” and “extremely serious.”
Human rights groups say China is the world’s leading executioner, killing thousands of people every year. The country does not disclose details of its use of the death penalty, so reliable figures are not available.
China is grappling with a wave of public violence, with many attackers believed to have been motivated by a desire to “take revenge on society” – with perpetrators targeting foreigners because of their personal grievances.
The number of such attacks across China will reach 19 in 2024.
Days after the attacks in Zhuhai and Wuxi, a man charged into a crowd of children and parents outside a primary school in the city of Changde, injuring 30 people.
Authorities said the man, Huang Wen, wanted to vent his anger after facing investment losses and family conflicts.
Huang was given a suspended death sentence last month, which could be commuted to life in prison if he does not commit another crime in the next two years.
Analysts previously told the BBC that the series of massacres raised questions about how the Chinese were coping with various sources of stress, such as the country’s weak economy.
“Tensions do appear to be increasing, and it doesn’t look like they will ease in the near future,” says George Magnus, an economist at the China Center at the University of Oxford.
