An attack using a car that led to the death of 35 people in China has raised concerns about a series of violent incidents in public space as the government restricts information sharing on the event.
In social networks people are actively debating the social practice of ‘’revenge of the society’’, when people take the revenge for personal offenses on strangers.
Zhuhai police said the driver who crashed into crowds at a stadium on Monday night did so because he was unhappy over a divorce settlement.
It is considered the most catastrophic act of violence in decades, but it is also the most recent in a string of incidents in the past few months.
As the Zhuhai case stirs up a nationwide outrage, President Xi Jinping has promised severe punishment for the offender.
Police stated that the 62-year-old driver who was arrested is in a coma because of the injuries he inflicted on himself.
In Chinese social media, people reacted to his actions with surprised and questioned if it was a sign of social decay.
One comment that went viral on Weibo read: What can you do to get back at society because your family is not doing well? You have killed so many people, will you ever sleep well at night.”
One WeChat user wrote: “If there is a widespread lack of job security and huge pressure to survive… then society is bound to be full of problems, hostility and terror.”
Another person wrote in a widely-shared post: “We should be analyzing the core sociological [causes] that have given birth to so many random [violations] of the vulnerable.”
Several violent incidents happened in China this year: a mass stabbing and firearms attack occurred in Shandong in February, at least 21 people were killed.
Recently, many posts, comments, and articles about the Zhuhai incident have faced censorship, as officials restrict discussions on what seems to be a politically sensitive issue. In China, it’s not unusual for censors to swiftly remove social media posts related to high-profile criminal events.
Nevertheless, several heartfelt accounts questioning the incident continue to spread widely online. The BBC has been unable to independently verify these stories. One individual shared that a family friend was killed during the attack while participating in an evening workout with a walking group.
“My mother is struggling to cope with the loss of such a close friend. The more I see her grief, the more I feel anger towards the cold-heartedness of the murderer,” the individual expressed.
They criticized Chinese media for “barely reporting” on the incident while focusing more on a prominent military airshow happening in Zhuhai at the same time.
“To those in power, airplanes seem to matter more than human lives.” Several Chinese media outlets informed BBC Chinese that they received explicit instructions not to cover the incident in the initial hours following it.
Since then, news organizations have published reports on the attack, primarily featuring statements from the police and Xi Jinping.
Another widely shared post came from someone whose mother was severely injured in the attack and is currently in the intensive care unit of a hospital.
The individual mentioned that it was uncertain whether their mother would survive, and that their father, who witnessed the attack, was heartbroken. “His heart is shattered, yet he is still doing his best to respond calmly to phone calls and to all those who care about my mum.”
