CHINA has executed two mass murderers including a man who killed 35 people in a car-ramming attack and a knifeman who slaughtered eight at a university.
Fan Weiqiu, 62, was sentenced to death three weeks ago after smashing his car into people exercising outside a sports centre in the country’s deadliest public attack for a decade.
The scene of devastation after the attack outside the sports centre in JiangsuJam Press
Cops in Wuxi City, China, responding to the stabbing spree in November 2024Reuters
AFPA female prisoner is dragged to her execution in Beijing in 2001. Execution rates have continued at thousands each year[/caption]
And Xu Jiajin, 21, was put to death after he launched a frenzied stabbing spree at his former college, wounding 17 alongside the eight killed.
China has been plagued by a spate of devastating acts of random violence in recent months driven by a common theme: a desire to “take revenge on society”.
The state is battling to control the surge by ramping-up security and dishing out the harshest punishments – meaning the death penalty.
Thousands are allegedly executed each year in the country through various methods including firing squads, lethal injections and mobile death vans.
Fan, the Zuhai attacker, sped his car into people exercising in a sports ground in the southern city of Zhuhaion on November 11, 2024.
Police reports said he circled the complex several times before accelerating through the unsuspecting crowd, intent on maiming as many people as possible.
A court concluded the awful violence was unleashed in a fit of rage caused by his failed marriage and a divorce settlement he considered unfair.
His small off-road vehicle careered into around 80 people, who were mostly training on a running track, killing 35 of them.
When police reached Fan, they found him stabbing himself in the neck before he fell into a coma.
He was rushed to hospital where he received emergency treatment so that he could be tried and sentenced.
Video published on Chinese social media shows bodies lying on the ground in pools of blood and lost shoes lying across the asphalt.
The death toll was the highest from an act of public violence since 2014, when a string of attacks rocked the far western region of Xinjiang.
The diabolical ramming was branded as “extremely vicious” by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who called for severe punishment.
But just days later Xu, the Jiangsu knifeman, launched his own attack at his former university Wuxi Vocational College of Arts and Technology.
A woman convicted of murder cries out before she is executed in Guangzhou, China
This picture allegedly shows a firing squad executing Chinese knife attacker Zhao Zewei in 2018
The twenty-one-year-old had been meant to graduate from the school earlier last year but “failed to obtain his diploma due to poor exam results”.
Police said he confessed to his crime “without hesitation” on 16 November and was sentenced to death a month later.
Human rights groups believe China is the world’s leading executioner, killing thousands of people every year.
The country does not release details about its use of the death penalty, treating executions as a state secret, so reliable numbers are unavailable.
However, news of both executions were broadcast by state media on Monday in an apparent bid to warn off other would-be attackers.
The Chinese government is anxious to halt the spree of public violence marring its usually-peaceful society as quickly as possible.
There were 19 attacks in 2024 where a desire to “take revenge on society” was noted as the motivation.
GettyChinese leader Xi Jinping called for severe punishment after the car-ramming attack[/caption]
APA woman gazes at flowers honouring the dead outside the Zhuhai sports centre[/caption]
News of the executions was generally applauded by the Chinese public after going viral on Weibo, China’s version of X.
One commenter wrote: “How very satisfying.”
Days after the Wuxi knife attack, a man ploughed his SUV into a crowd of children gathered outside a primary school in Changde, central China.
Nobody died, but harrowing footage of injured kids strewn across the road rocked the country.
Footage posted to social media also showed men smashing the windows of the car before dragging out the driver and beating him.
These three horrific attacks happened within eight days of each other, suggesting the men could have been inspired by one another.
Chinese society is struggling with a slowing economy, high unemployment and diminishing social mobility, and commentators have speculated these could be the root of the dissatisfaction fuelling the violent “revenge”.
China has been leading the charge of executions over the past few years, and has been repeatedly named as the world’s deadliest distributor of justice by Amnesty.
Also least year, a man stabbed two people to death and injured 21 others at a hospital in the southern province of Yunnan, China.
In August 2023, a man with a history of mental illness killed two people and injured seven others with a knife in a residential district in Yunnan.
Six other people, including three children, were killed in a horrifying kindergarten stabbing in Guangdong just one month before that.
ReutersFlower bouquets placed outside the Zhuhai sports centre are removed by people[/caption]
Leave a comment
