The order came from above.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping hopes the recent mass killings that shocked the country will never happen again.
He ordered local authorities to prevent future “extreme cases”.
Attacks, in which drivers mow down people on foot and knife-wielding attackers stab multiple victims, are not new in China.
However, the recent surge has attracted attention.
Local officials quickly vowed to investigate all kinds of personal disputes that could lead to an invasion, from marital troubles to disagreements over inheritance.
But with the Chinese state already tightening its grip on all social and political aspects of East Asia, its increasing intrusion into people’s private lives is causing concern.
“Revenge for social crimes”
Chinese people categorize these attacks this way.
Three incidents occurred in November alone. A man who suffered investment losses punched people at an elementary school in Hunan province, injuring 30 people.
A student who failed an exam at a vocational school in Yixing stabbed eight people to death.
The highest number of victims, 35 people, was caused by a man angry over a divorce who mowed down a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai.
While it may be difficult to pinpoint the exact motive behind such attacks, experts say there is an overwhelming sense of oppression in Chinese society.
“On the surface, there seem to be separate factors, but we see a common link,” said Wu Zhang, a former political science professor. “This, in my personal opinion, means that everyone has a sense of injustice. They feel deeply that this society is very unfair, and they can’t take it anymore. .”
Since 2015, Chinese police have targeted human rights lawyers and nonprofit advocacy groups, imprisoning many while closely surveilling others, and civil society groups active in the early 2000s and 2010s. is virtually destroyed.
Wu was fired from Tsinghua University after conducting fieldwork during the 2014 Occupy protests in Hong Kong.
He said police have been regularly stationed outside his home in Beijing since last year.
Keeping a tight lid on murder cases
Ten years ago, the media could report on cases as they progressed and even release the names of suspects.
Now that is rarely possible.
In the 24 hours leading up to the release of the death toll in the Zhuhai killings, state censors quickly deleted videos of the incident and eyewitness testimonies shared online.
In the attack on an elementary school in Hunan province, authorities only announced the number of injured almost a month after the verdict was handed down.
A tally of violent attacks may have been documented in other countries as well. Notably, there have been 38 mass killings in the United States so far this year, according to an Associated Press database.
But a lack of public data in China makes deciphering trends in mass killings difficult.
“Between 2000 and 2010, there was a lot of discussion about how to support these people through structural reforms to reduce these risks, but there is no such discussion now.” said Rose Luciu, a prominent former journalist with the state-run Phoenix newspaper. TV station, associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Luqiu suspects that the government is implementing censorship to prevent copycats from copying these crimes.
“Things are going to get tougher and tougher,” she predicted. For the Chinese state, “strengthening control is the only way to deal with it.”
After the attack in Zhuhai, President Xi urged all local governments to “strengthen prevention and control at the root of risks, strictly prevent the occurrence of extreme incidents, and resolve disputes and disputes in a timely manner,” according to state-run Xinhua news agency. He called for a solution.
The Associated Press found notices from at least a dozen local governments, from small towns to large cities, announcing measures.
In eastern Anhui province, ruling Communist Party leaders toured middle schools, local police stations and even chemical factory warehouses, urging workers to “search for hidden dangers.”
He said there was a need to “thoroughly and sensitively investigate and resolve disputes and disputes” involving families, marriages and neighborhoods.
Police and prosecutors issued similar statements.
The Ministry of Justice promised to curb conflicts by investigating disputes over inheritance, housing, land, and unpaid wages.
But many expressed concerns about how such conflicts would be discovered.
“I think we are at the beginning of a vicious cycle,” says Lynette Ong, a University of Toronto professor and author of “Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Modern China.” “If conflicts are nipped in the bud, the system will put enormous pressure on schools, businesses and factories.”
The new announcement reminded Ong of China’s strict policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neighborhood committees, the lowest tier of government, have erected fences and barriers in front of buildings to control access and, in extreme cases, invaded homes to disinfect the apartments of people infected with the virus.
Eventually, people started protesting en masse.
“If we see unwise measures being introduced, we will face public resistance, anger and dissatisfaction, which will lead to even more extreme measures, creating a vicious cycle,” she said.
