A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for fatally stabbing a 10-year-old Japanese schoolboy in a tragic attack in Shenzhen, which occurred in September. The death sentence was handed down on Friday, according to reports from Japanese media.
The sentencing comes just one day after another court in China issued a similar death sentence to a Chinese man who attacked a Japanese mother and child, also killing a Chinese woman who attempted to protect them, in Suzhou province in June. The two cases, along with several high-profile executions in China in recent days, have sparked concerns, particularly among the Japanese expat community living in the country.
The Shenzhen incident, in which the young Japanese boy was tragically killed, was one of three attacks on foreigners in China last year. Just days before the Suzhou incident, a knife attack in Jilin in the country’s northeast injured four US college instructors. Following the Shenzhen attack, several Japanese companies, including Toshiba and Toyota, advised their staff to take precautions, while Panasonic offered free flights home to its employees.
In the Suzhou case, a Chinese court ruled that Zhou Jiasheng, 52, carried out the attack outside a Japanese school after personal grievances led him to lose his will to live, following job loss and mounting debts. He was sentenced to death for the killings, with a Chinese court deeming the attack an “intentional murder” and citing the “significant social impact” it caused.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, condemned the violence, stating that the crime was “absolutely unforgivable.” He also expressed his gratitude for Hu Youping, a Chinese bus attendant who lost his life while trying to protect the Japanese mother and child from Zhou’s attack.
At a press conference, Hayashi added that while the court did not mention Japan in the ruling, officials from the Japanese consulate in Shanghai had attended the sentencing.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, commented briefly on the Suzhou case, affirming that it was “in judicial process” and reiterated that China would continue to “protect the safety of foreign nationals in China.”
Recent attacks have raised alarms in China, where a rising number of public violence incidents have been attributed to perpetrators seeking to “take revenge on society” due to personal grievances. Last year, there were 19 attacks on pedestrians or strangers, a notable increase from previous years.
The country has seen a surge in deadly violence, including the execution of a man who killed at least 35 people in a car attack, believed to be the deadliest in a decade. A stabbing spree at a university last month also led to a death sentence, while a man who drove into a crowd of children and parents in December received a suspended death sentence.
