Two men who committed separate deadly mass killings in China have been executed, state media reported last week. Fan Weiqu and Xu Jiajin were executed last Monday. Their attacks, both committed in November 2024, caused Chinese president Xi Jinping to urge local governments to take action against so-called “revenge on society crimes,” the Associated Press reports.
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Fan killed at least 35 people when he rammed a car into a crowd outside a sports stadium in Zhuhai. Reports at the time said the 62-year-old man was driven to the crime by anger over his divorce settlement. The attack is thought to be one of the deadliest attacks by mass killers in China in recent years.
Xu, 21, killed eight women and injured 17 others when he went on a stabbing spree at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in Jiangsu. Police said the young man had failed his exams and was also upset about the low pay at his internship.
Around 6:30 p.m. local time, he reportedly hid in the bushes outside a women’s dormitory before entering and stabbing indiscriminately. He was subdued and arrested five hours later, with the help of some male students.
Mass Killers Fan Weiqu and Xu Jiajin Were Both Executed on Jan. 20, Chinese Media Reports
Both men were executed on Monday, Jan. 20, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The sentences were handed down by local governments and approved by the Supreme People’s Court.
In an interview with Switzerland-based news outlet NZZ, Xiang Biao, director of the Institute for Social Anthropology at the Max Planck Institute, offered one explanation for the rise in violent attacks and mass killers in China.
“People in China have forgotten how to cope with personal crises,” he said, noting the high pressure on citizens to “excel in school, secure a stable job, earn a high salary, marry and buy a house.”
“This narrow definition of life’s purpose is incredibly fragile,” Xiang explained. “If a marriage falls apart, people often lose their wealth and social standing all at once.”
Lynette Ong, professor of Chinese politics at the University of Toronto in Canada, agreed in an interview with AFP in November.
“These are symptoms of a society with a lot of pent-up grievances,” she said at the time.