JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
China has been rocked by a string of deadly attacks in recent weeks - not from outside, but from within. The perpetrators are seemingly ordinary people who the authorities say were disgruntled or unhappy. The attacks have left dozens dead, shocking the nation and raising some uneasy questions about social pressures and the limits of government control in China. NPRs John Ruwitch reports.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: The Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology is a tidy, tree-lined campus where students pick up skills to use in local industry. It's quiet now. But last week, the peace here was shattered. According to police, a 21-year-old former student who had failed his exams and couldn't graduate went on a rampage. He stabbed eight people to death and injured 17 others.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUITCASE WHEELS ROLLING)
RUWITCH: Classes have been shifted online, and students head home to process the horrible event. Many refuse to talk, saying they've been instructed by the school not to engage with media.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Mandarin).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: But one did - on the condition that we only identified him by his surname, Hu.
HU: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: Hu says it was shocking, and he's a little scared.
HU: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: "There's a certain vibe at the moment," he says.
HU: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: "A foul vibe."
HU: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: He says it needs to be rectified.
The school attack came just days after the most deadly incident like this in years. A 62-year-old man drove a car through a crowd of people exercising in the southern city of Zhuhai. Thirty-five people were killed and more than 40 injured. Police say the man was unhappy with his divorce settlement. Last month, there was a knife attack at a school in Beijing. The month before that, three people were stabbed to death in a supermarket in Shanghai. By one count, there have been at least 19 mass-casualty events in China this year.
SUN PEIDONG: These tragic events have clear patterns.
RUWITCH: Sun Peidong is an associate professor at Cornell University. She says inequality, social injustice and moral decline are behind the trend.
SUN: But what's triggering it? I think China's rapid modernization and urbanization have left many people feeling excluded and increasingly frustrated.
RUWITCH: To be sure, indiscriminate attacks like this are not new in China, but the recent rash of incidents has sparked outcry. Sun says increasingly strict government controls over speech and limited channels for people to air their grievances have made the problem worse.
(SOUNDBITE OF GATE ROLLING)
RUWITCH: Back at the school gate, the government's instinct to assert maximum control is on full display. Uniformed and plainclothes police are everywhere. At one point, they grab a man and violently shove him into a bus. It's not clear why.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mandarin).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Shouting in Mandarin).
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE BLOWING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mandarin).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Shouting in Mandarin).
RUWITCH: The man yells for help out a bus window, and then it drives away. Moments later, a distraught woman approaches the gate, and she's quickly bundled away by police.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: (Speaking in Mandarin, crying).
RUWITCH: She can be heard wailing, telling them she's the mother of one of the victims.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Crying).
RUWITCH: Even flowers are a problem. A tearful man who says he's done contract work at the school places eight bouquets by the gate, but they're removed by officials, one after the other, as soon as he puts them down.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: "The victims were so young," he says. "Whatever was behind this attack must be addressed."
Wilson Zhang is a former journalist who now has a large following online for his social commentaries. He thinks the country is in a vicious spiral.
WILSON ZHANG: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: He suspects the spate of attacks is linked to the pandemic. The government imposed what he says were inhumane restrictions, and people survived in part by believing that things would get better.
ZHANG: (Speaking Mandarin).
RUWITCH: But he says they haven't. The economy's in the dumps. There's a sense of despair, and the government's efforts to keep a lid on it all are only making things worse.
John Ruwitch, NPR News, Yixing, China. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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