Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai removed wreaths, candles and bottles of alcohol, offerings laid at the scene of the deadliest mass killing in the country in a decade, as the government scrambled to respond and censor the outrage online.
On Monday, a male driver angry at his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd at a sports center in the city of 2.5 million, killing 35 people and injuring 43, but the government took almost a day to announce the death toll.
This prompted an outrage on Chinese social media, where posts complaining about the government's slow response and raising questions about the mental health of a nation shaken by a recent spate of similar killings were being quickly removed.
Photo: Reuters
"The authorities hadn't released any information — some colleagues mentioned it and I couldn't believe it at first, but it was confirmed later," said a 50-year-old man who identified himself as Zheng who brought flowers to the site.
"It's just a spontaneous feeling I had. Even though I don't know them personally, I had family members who passed away in the past, so I understand that feeling," Zheng said.
Delivery drivers on motorbikes kept dropping off flowers at the site today, but the bouquets were being immediately removed by security personnel deployed there, sometimes even before a person was able to put them on the ground.
Some wreaths, captured on photographs by Reuters reporters, carried handwritten notes: "Strangers travel well. May there be no demons in heaven,” read one.
On another: “May there be no thugs in heaven. Good will triumph over evil. Rest in peace.”
After initially allowing journalists to briefly speak to the people laying the flowers, a handful of security personnel sporting light blue uniforms and caps told reporters not to talk to the people or to film specific messages on the bouquets.
Addressing media questions about the incident today, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said China was one of the safest countries in the world with a government that has and will always take measures to safeguard lives and social stability.
"As far as we know, there are no casualties that are foreign nationals in this case," ministry spokesperson Lin Jian (林劍) told a news briefing, adding that China would continue to protect the safety of foreigners.
The attack happened as Zhuhai captured China's attention with the largest aviation exhibition, which every two years showcases the nation's civil and military aerospace achievements and where a new stealth jet fighter is on display this year.
While there is no indication that the two events are related, Chinese people often pick large national events with round-the-clock media coverage in an attempt to circumvent the tight censorship and highlight their grievances.
This was the second such incident to occur during the Zhuhai airshow.
In 2008, at least four people were killed and 20 injured when a man drove a truck into a crowded schoolyard during the airshow.
Police said that attacker had been seeking revenge over a traffic dispute.
China's state broadcaster CCTV did not mention the attack in its 30-minute midday news bulletin.
Instead, the program led with Chinese President Xi Jinping's (習近平) departure for the APEC summit in Peru and devoted a portion of the airtime to the airshow.
Other state media, such as China Daily's Chinese-language Web site, also prominently displayed the news of Xi's Peru trip.
The current affairs part of China Daily's Web site and the local area page did not mention the incident either.
Weibo messaging site censored a hashtag that mentioned the death toll.
Media backed by the local government yesterday night published a 1,000-word write-up of a local officials' meeting on the killing.
It emphasized, among other things, the importance of "earnestly shouldering the political responsibility of 'promoting the development of one party and ensuring the safety of one party,'" but it did not mention the details of the incident or the death toll.
Rose Luqiu (閭丘露薇), who researches Chinese censorship at Hong Kong's Baptist University, said the way information was curtailed in Zhuhai was consistent with other incidents in China that involve significant numbers of deaths.
"The censorship is normal because all these incidents are censored to try to control the narrative. The police statement will be the only official explanation, and they won't allow people to challenge or to discuss it," Luqiu said.
"I think the purpose of this is to reduce panic and ... if you look at previous incidents like the stabbing of Japanese schoolchildren, they're also trying to reduce the copycat effect," she said.
Luqiu was referring to an incident from September, when an assailant stabbed and ultimately killed a student at a Japanese school in southern China, marking a second such attack on Japanese citizens this year.
Even though there was no indication that Japanese citizens were involved in the Zhuhai attack, the Japanese embassy in Beijing yesterday released a warning asking Japanese living in China to keep their voices down when speaking in Japanese and to avoid going out at night.
Luqiu added that in China, local officials can sometimes be fired for incidents that cause mass deaths, even if it is clearly an individual act, so they tend to be reluctant to release any information to the public.
Xi yesterday night ordered "all-out efforts" to treat the injured and demanded severe punishment for the perpetrator.
The government has dispatched a team to provide guidance on handling of the case.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
RSS