China’s stabbing problem: Why are mass knife attacks so common?

Three people were left dead and six others wounded as a “gangster wearing a cap and mask” stormed a kindergarten and attacked people with a knife in southeast China's Jiangxi province.

Wednesday's knife attack is the latest in a series of such attacks that have led to 100 deaths in the past decade, according to a report by Independent.

Knife attacks in China

Mass violent crime is rare in China, which strictly prohibits citizens from owning firearms, but there has been a spate of mass stabbings in recent years.

And fatal knife attacks specifically targeting kindergarten and school students have occurred nationwide, carried out by people reportedly wishing to wreak revenge on society.

Last April, two children were killed, and 16 others wounded when a knife-wielding man entered a kindergarten in southern China.

More recently, four people were wounded in a stabbing at a major Shanghai hospital last month before the knife-wielding attacker was shot and subdued by the police.

Six people were also killed and 14 wounded after a man stabbed passers-by on a pedestrian shopping street in the eastern Chinese city of Anqing in June last year.

According to news agency Reuters, around 100 children and adults have been killed and hundreds more injured over the past decade in apparently uncoordinated, “lone wolf” attacks.

Why do so many knife attacks occur in China?

As per a report by Independent, the Chinese government largely attributes such attacks on people bearing grudges against society with an aim to wreak revenge, or says the perpetrators suffer from unidentified mental illnesses.

In June 2021, a knife-wielding man stabbed passersby on a pedestrian shopping street in the eastern Chinese city of Anqing, killing six and injuring 14 people.

According to CNN, a local government statement said that the 25-year-old unemployed man was seeking to "vent anger over family troubles and pessimism."

With a strict gun control law in place that puts the firearms out of reach for ordinary people, knives have become the most common weapon used in such acts of violence.

In another such incident in April, in which two children were killed by a knife-wielding man at a kindergarten in southern China. An additional 14 children and two teachers were wounded, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The police said the suspect had a history of schizophrenia -- a serious mental illness characterised by symptoms of psychosis.

In December 2020, a 62-year-old suspect stabbed seven people to death and injured another seven. The Chinese media reported that the man was socially withdrawn after losing his son and getting divorced, he carried out the attack to express his "dissatisfaction towards society."

Across a number of stabbing incidents and as per official announcements, the suspects are often found to have been suffering with mental illness, or were seeking revenge against their employers, officials, or the wider society.

Even with a record of mental illness among the people of China, an estimate puts the number at 100 million, availability of mental health professionals is quite limited.

“In China, there’s little focus on mental health, so more potential offenders slip through the cracks,” according to a report by Quartz.

“An estimated 100 million Chinese have varying degrees of mental illness... but China has a fraction of the number of mental health professionals compared to developed countries.”

According to a report by The Straits Times, experts in China have pointed to “anxieties caused by social upheaval and persistent inequality in explaining the attacks”. Similarly, The New York Times says assailants are sometimes said to be “trying to vent anger at society over issues such as unemployment”.

With inputs from agencies

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