The Chinese government says the recent stabbing of four Americans by a man in northeast China’s Jilin province is an isolated case and hopes the attack will not affect normal people-to-people exchanges between China and the US.
A 55-year-old Chinese man called Cui Dapeng was arrested by police after four American teachers were stabbed and injured when visiting a temple in Beishan Park in Jilin city at 11:49 am on Monday, according to local police.
Citing a preliminary investigation, police said the incident began as the suspect and one of the foreigners collided with each other, and then the suspect attacked the four foreigners, who had traveled from Iowa’s Cornell College to teach students at Beihua University.
During the incident, a Chinese tourist who tried to stop the attack was also injured.
“All the injured were rushed to hospital and received proper medical treatment. None of them is in critical condition,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson of the foreign ministry, said Tuesday. “Preliminary police assessment shows it is an isolated incident. Further investigation is still under way.”
“China is widely considered one of the safest countries in the world,” he added. “We have taken and will continue to take effective measures to keep all foreign nationals safe in China.”
An X account called “Teacher Li is not your teacher” on Monday uploaded video footage that showed several injured people were lying on the floor while waiting for medical treatment.
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, says in a Weibo post on Monday that the Americans simply happened to become targets of a random attack.
“In a recent period of time, the number of foreigners in China has significantly increased,” Hu said. “The foreign tourists who were on the streets and at tourist sites were very friendly in general.”
“No matter why the attack was initiated, it was only a random case from a broad perspective in Chinese society,” he said. “I hope this incident will not create a negative impact on the exchanges between Chinese people and foreigners.”
Hu says in another Weibo post on Tuesday that foreigners have been victims of criminal assaults from time to time elsewhere in the world.
The attack happened after Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 6 called for increasing education exchanges and cooperation between China and the US. Xi said these exchanges will help promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries.
‘First button of a shirt’
After Xi and US President Joe Biden met face-to-face in San Francisco last November, they failed to reach any agreement on trade and Taiwan matters. But they agreed to increase people-to-people exchanges.
Xi said at that time that China would invite 50,000 young people from the US to study in China over the next five years.
According to the US State Department, there are only 350 American students in China while more than 300,000 Chinese students are now studying in the US.
Early this year, Sarah Lande, a 85-year-old Iowa resident who had met Xi during his visit to the US back in 1985, wrote a letter to the Chinese leader, saying that some students in Muscatine in Iowa wanted to visit China. Within days, she received a reply from Xi, who invited Muscatine students and teachers to China for the first exchange.
In late January, a total of 24 students and four educators from the Muscatine High School enjoyed an eight-day China trip fully-funded by the Chinese government. In April, another batch of 32 students and eight teachers from the same school had a week-long trip to China.
In March, 24 students from Lincoln High School and Steilacoom High School in Washington also visited China.
In a video footage published by the state-owned media CGTN, Muscatine students say they love China, and that they are amazed by Chinese culture and achievements. One student called Xi “Yeye,” which means paternal grandfather in Mandarin.
Over the past two decades, China has offered many free or low-priced trips to young people in Hong Kong and Taiwan to show them the good side of the mainland. Some young people may have had good impressions of China after their trips. But some other travelers may have reacted more critically, as their teachers at home taught them to use different reference points in viewing China.
On April 17, a commentary published by the People’s Daily said promoting people-to-people exchanges will help stabilize China-US relations.
“Over the past couple of years, the China-US relationship has experienced some setbacks and serious challenges, from which lessons should be learned,” the article said. “The ups and downs of the development of China-US ties prove that the issue of strategic perception is always fundamental to the China-US relationship, just like the first button of a shirt that must be put right.”
Anti-US sentiment
Chinese netizens mainly criticized the attack on the four Americans in Jilin. They said the incident seriously hurt China’s reputation as a safe country.
Overseas Chinese netizens said they believe that the attacker could have beeen affected by Beijing’s anti-US propaganda and become xenophobic. Some warned that xenophobia can spread like disease if more people try to replicate what the Jilin attacker did.
Representative Adam Zabner of the Iowa state legislature said his brother, David Zabner, was among the four injured American teachers.
In 2017, Cornell College (not to be confused with Cornell University in Ithaca, New York) and Huabei University in Jilin jointly launched an undergraduate program on telecommunication engineering. Up to 120 students are admitted to the program annually. Huabei University also formed similar partnerships with Finland’s JAMK University of Applied Science and the United Kingdom’s Teesside University.
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Follow Jeff Pao on X at @jeffpao3
