On Wednesday, a merchant in rural Northern China barged into a kindergarten with a kitchen cleaver, hacked to death seven children, their teacher and then went home and watched rescuers come to the scene, and then took his own life. This was the fifth in a series of copycat assaults in central China directed at young school children. But whether the problem is weak diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, shoddy security and little money for schools, too much media attention to spectacular crimes or too little public debate about social inequality, the killings have presented an unusual political and security challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And in the frenzied speculation about why people might want to mimic horrific attacks on children at schools, causing problems for the powerful is believed to be one possible motive.
One answer is that killing a child causes the greatest shock and awe to a society. In some ways, these killings are a wake-up call to the Chinese government. Young children have been somewhat of a serious problem for the Communist Party. They can’t keep children safe in school and they can’t keep untainted baby formula off they shelf. The government has ordered news agencies to only use terse accounts of the killings but Chinese citizens have been critical of the government’s censoring of the killings, they believe it shows their guilt.
It was not clear if administrators had stepped up security at Shengshui Temple Kindergarten in Hanzhong, not far from the city of Xi’an. By Chinese standards it is a tiny school, with only 20 students. According to the local government’s account, Wu Huanming, 48, stormed into the school just after 8:20 a.m. He used a cleaver to slash the school’s administrator and teacher, Wu Hongying, and a student standing by her side, killing them both. He then hacked at 18 students between the ages of 2 and 4.
Some have speculated that the attacks underscore the absence of pressure-release valves in a society that is going through rapid economic upheaval, where the gap between the wealthy and the destitute is widening, and where corrupt officials often exercise power arbitrarily. The attacks have also prompted talk of how Chinese rarely discuss mental illness. With such a rapidly changing social environment there will be a huge impact on people’s personalities.
One answer is that killing a child causes the greatest shock and awe to a society. In some ways, these killings are a wake-up call to the Chinese government. Young children have been somewhat of a serious problem for the Communist Party. They can’t keep children safe in school and they can’t keep untainted baby formula off they shelf. The government has ordered news agencies to only use terse accounts of the killings but Chinese citizens have been critical of the government’s censoring of the killings, they believe it shows their guilt.
It was not clear if administrators had stepped up security at Shengshui Temple Kindergarten in Hanzhong, not far from the city of Xi’an. By Chinese standards it is a tiny school, with only 20 students. According to the local government’s account, Wu Huanming, 48, stormed into the school just after 8:20 a.m. He used a cleaver to slash the school’s administrator and teacher, Wu Hongying, and a student standing by her side, killing them both. He then hacked at 18 students between the ages of 2 and 4.
Some have speculated that the attacks underscore the absence of pressure-release valves in a society that is going through rapid economic upheaval, where the gap between the wealthy and the destitute is widening, and where corrupt officials often exercise power arbitrarily. The attacks have also prompted talk of how Chinese rarely discuss mental illness. With such a rapidly changing social environment there will be a huge impact on people’s personalities.
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