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China arrests suspect in stabbing attack on US instructors

Published June 11, 2024last updated June 11, 2024

China's Foreign Ministry has said the stabbing of four US educators was a random incident and the investigations are ongoing. The US State Department says it is monitoring the situation.

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Jilin Beishan Park in Jilin City, China
The four were visiting the park with a faculty member from Beihua on a public holiday Image: Photoshot/picture alliance

Chinese police in the northeastern city of Jilinon said on Tuesday a 55-year-old man was under arrest after the stabbing of four university instructors who were visiting from the United States.

According to the police, the alleged attacker was walking in a public park when he bumped into a foreigner, before stabbing him and three others. 

Authorities said the incident had been random, and that none of the victims had sustained a life-threatening injury.

What Beijing has said

"All the wounded were sent to the hospital... and received proper treatment; none of them are in danger of losing their life," spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at the Foreign Ministry's regular afternoon press conference. The group had been visiting a temple in the city's Beishan Park when a man attacked them with a knife.

"The police preliminarily judged that the case was isolated. Further investigation is underway."

"China is generally recognized as one of the safest countries in the world," Lin added.

"China... will continue to take relevant measures to effectively protect the safety of all foreigners in China. This isolated case will not affect the normal development of China-US people-to-people exchanges," he said.

US seeks safe return

The US State Department said it would work to ensure the safe return of the lecturers, who were on an exchange from Iowa's Cornell College, and that it was monitoring the situation.

"We are working through proper channels and requesting to speak with the US Embassy on appropriate matters to ensure that the victims first receive quality care for their injuries and then get out of China in a medically feasible manner," Iowa's Congress representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks posted on X, the platform formally known as Twitter.

Monday was China's Dragon Boat Festival public holiday. Cornell College said the instructors were attacked while they visited the park with a colleague from the faculty in Beihua, an outlying district of Jilin. 

The attack happened as the US and China seek to increase people-to-people exchanges to improve relations.

News of the incident was said to have been suppressed in China, where the government, with no news media outlets reporting it. A social media hashtag about the attack appeared to have been blocked on one popular platform. 

rc/kb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)