On Monday night, as all of China was getting ready to start their week-long holiday for the National Day on October 1st, a man in a Shanghai supermarket interrupted with a knife and attacked nearly twenty people who were finishing their shopping for a long holiday where many families gather. The final toll was three dead and 15 injured. The deceased victims passed away in the hospital.
The police explained that the assailant, a 37-year-old man identified by his last name, Lin, entered the establishment in the Songjiang district at 9:47 p.m. armed. According to the statement from local authorities, Lin traveled to Shanghai from another nearby province to "vent his anger over personal financial reasons."
Several videos circulating on social media show several blood-covered bodies lying on the supermarket floor, including that of a child. This latest fatal stabbing once again highlights the growing incidents of knife attacks in the Asian giant.
In September, a diplomatic crisis erupted between Japan and China after a child enrolled in a Japanese school in the Chinese city of Shenzhen was killed with a knife by a 44-year-old man. The attack took place 200 meters from the school. The victim, a 10-year-old, had a Japanese father and a Chinese mother.
In an email sent to Japanese citizens living in China, the Japanese embassy warned residents to be vigilant and take precautions, citing several attacks in recent months. "An incident like this should never happen again. We strongly urge the Chinese side to ensure the safety of the Japanese people," said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
In June, a man, also armed with a knife, approached a bus stop in front of a Japanese school in the Chinese city of Suzhou and attacked three people. A Japanese mother and her son were injured, while a Chinese woman who tried to protect them later died in the hospital from her injuries.
Two weeks before the attack in Suzhou, four American university professors were stabbed by a Chinese man in a public park in Jilin, in the northeast. The video of the bloodied Americans lying on the park ground went viral on social media.
In May, local media reported that another knife attack at a primary school in Jiangxi, in the south of the country, left two dead and a dozen students injured. The attacker was a 45-year-old woman. A few days earlier, in a hospital in the Chinese province of Yunnan, a man stabbed two patients to death and injured 21 others.
Looking back to last year, there were several similar attacks, such as the murder of three children in a nursery and the death of two adults after a mass stabbing in a residential neighborhood.
In China, a country where police officers on the streets do not carry firearms, there is strict control over access to these weapons. Chinese law prohibits their possession, except for hunters with the corresponding permits. In large cities, establishments also usually require citizens to show identification to purchase large knives.
This year, China's Ministry of Public Security stated that the country had one of the lowest homicide rates in the world. Violent crimes are extremely low compared to many other nations. In 2023, based on official figures, China recorded only 0.46 homicides per 100,000 people. In Spain, for example, the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicate a homicide rate of 0.62 murders per 100,000 people, one of the lowest in Europe.
"These isolated incidents can happen in any country in the world," a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said after the attack at the bus stop in front of the Japanese school. However, the recent events have raised concerns about whether these may be related to a growing wave of social discontent due to current economic challenges.
Although local media do report on many of the knife attacks that occur, authorities in the Asian superpower do not release specific data. Typically, the police provide minimal information about the detainees, mostly revealing their age and gender.