Reuters
Many left candles and floral tributes outside Zhuhai Sports Center
A car attack that killed 35 people in China has sparked questions about a recent wave of public violence, as authorities continue to censor discussion of the incident.
On social media, many discuss the social phenomenon of “taking revenge on society,” where individuals act on personal grievances by attacking strangers.
Police said the driver who plowed into crowds at a stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai on Monday night acted because he was unhappy with a divorce settlement.
Although it was the deadliest known act of violence in decades, it was also the latest in a series of attacks in recent months.
Amid a national outcry over the Zhuhai incident, President Xi Jinping vowed to “severely punish” the perpetrator. Police said the 62-year-old driver, who was arrested, is in a coma due to self-inflicted injuries.
On Chinese social media platforms, many expressed shock at his actions and questioned whether it was a symptom of deeper societal problems.
A comment that went viral on Weibo read: “How can you take revenge on society because your family life is not going well? You have cost so many innocent lives, will you ever have peace of mind. “
“If there is a widespread lack of job security and enormous pressure to survive… then society is bound to be full of problems, hostility and terror,” one user said on WeChat.
Another person wrote in a widely shared post: “We should examine the deep-rooted social (factors)…that have fostered so many…indiscriminate attacks on the weak.” »
A number of violent attacks have been reported in China this year, including a mass stabbing and shooting attack in Shandong in February that killed at least 21 people.
In October, a stabbing attack at a major school in Beijing injured five people, while in September a man went on a stabbing attack at a supermarket in Shanghai, killing three people and injuring several others.
Many posts, comments and articles about the Zhuhai incident have been censored in recent days, with authorities limiting discussion of what appears to have been considered a politically sensitive topic. In China, it is common for censors to quickly remove social media posts related to high-profile criminal incidents.
Despite this, several emotional stories raising questions about the incident continued to circulate widely online. The BBC was unable to independently verify these accounts.
One person said a family friend was killed in the attack while she was doing her evening workout with a walking group.
“My mother is having a hard time accepting the loss of such a close friend. The more I witness her grief, the more irritated I am by the murderer's cold-bloodedness,” the person wrote.
Another widely circulated post was written by a person who said their mother was seriously injured in the attack and was currently hospitalized in a hospital's intensive care unit.
The person said he wasn't sure his mother would survive and his father, who witnessed the attack, was devastated. “His heart is broken, but he still does his best to calmly answer phone calls and everyone who cares about my mother.”
Both accounts criticized the lack of information in the hours following the incident.
“Until ten hours after the incident, there were no statistics on the victims, no statement from the police,” said one of them.
Additional reporting by Fan Wang.
