Four US university professors injured in stabbing attack in China

HONG KONG Four instructors at a small Iowa college were injured in a knife attack while on a teaching trip to China, their school and officials in both countries said.

Chinese police said Tuesday that a suspect had been arrested and that the injured were receiving treatment but their lives were not in danger.

The rare attack on foreigners in the powerful security state comes as China tries to repair ties with the United States and revive tourism to help boost a sluggish economy after three years of isolation amid the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19.

All four instructors at Cornell College, a private liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were injured in a serious incident during a daytime visit to a public park, the president of the college confirmed Monday. school, Jonathan Brand, in a press release.

They were accompanied by a faculty member from the school's Chinese partner institution, Beihua University, during the attack in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin.

Brand said the school had been in contact with all four and was helping them.

A graphic video circulating on social media shows a woman and two men, one of whom is drenched in blood, lying on the ground in Beishan Park in central Jilin, where several ancient temples are located.

Injured people lie on the ground after a stabbing attack at Beishan Park in Jilin, China.via

All three appeared conscious and were using or searching for their cell phones in full view of the others.

A State Department spokesperson said he was aware of the killing of three U.S. citizens Monday in the city of Jilin.

We are in contact with local authorities and are closely following their investigation into this incident, the statement said.

The three U.S. citizens are receiving medical treatment and plan to return to the United States upon release from the hospital.

U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in an article on , in China “.

He said a U.S. consular official visited the four people at Jilin hospital where they were being treated.

China's Foreign Ministry confirmed the incident on Tuesday after hours of public silence from authorities.

All the injured were immediately taken to hospital and given appropriate medical treatment, and none of them are in life-threatening condition, spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press briefing. in Beijing. Police have preliminary determined that this was an isolated incident and are currently investigating further.

In a statement carried by Chinese state media on Tuesday, the Jilins Chuanying District Public Security Bureau said a man surnamed Cui, 55, was arrested on Monday.

He “hit a foreign national while he was walking in Beishan Park. He then stabbed this foreigner and three other foreign nationals who accompanied him, as well as a Chinese tourist who tried to stop his attack”, specifies the press release.

Chinese state media, which often covers Chinese nationals facing violence in the United States, had previously remained silent on the attack, and discussions about it appeared to be tightly controlled on heavily censored Chinese social media.

Prominent Chinese commentator Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-backed nationalist Global Times tabloid, said Tuesday he hoped it was an isolated incident that would not have an impact negative on personnel exchanges between China and other countries.

Our people are generally very friendly towards foreign tourists who show up at markets and tourist attractions, he said in a Weibo post that has since been deleted. Whatever the motive of the attackers in this incident, it is an isolated case in the broader context of Chinese society.

Iowa State Rep. Adam Zabner confirmed that his brother, David Zabner, was among the victims of the attack on Monday, a public holiday in China. He said his brother had stitches after being stabbed in the arm and remained hospitalized, but was doing well and in good spirits.

David Zabner, a Tufts University graduate student and Cornell College alumnus who previously taught there, had previously participated in the exchange program and returned this year, Adam Zabner said.

David Zabner. Courtesy Rep. Adam Zabner

According to a 2018 press release, Beihua funds Cornell professors to travel and live in China while teaching computer science, mathematics and physics courses over a two-week period. Cornell College said Monday that no students are participating in the program.

Phone calls to Beihua University and the joint program with Cornell were unsuccessful Tuesday.

It is unclear whether the teachers were targeted or attacked randomly.

Michael Meyer, an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh who previously taught in Jilin, told NBC News: “It is extremely rare for foreigners, let alone four university professors, to be attacked in China.

The attack came as the United States and China, the world's two largest economies, promote people-to-people exchanges as part of an effort to improve bilateral relations. U.S. officials are considering easing Level 3 travel advisories for mainland China, its second-highest warning level, in part because they fear it would discourage such trade.

During a visit to the United States last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has long-standing personal ties to Iowa, having first visited there in 1985 as part of an agricultural delegation, said Beijing was ready to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for exchanges and studies. programs over the next five years.

The number of Americans studying in China has declined sharply over the past decade. There are currently nearly 300,000 Chinese students in the United States, while fewer than 900 Americans study in China, according to U.S. data.

Lin, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Tuesday that the stabbing would not affect the normal flow of cultural exchanges between the United States and China.

China is recognized as one of the safest countries in the world, he said. China has always taken and will continue to take effective measures to ensure the safety of all foreigners in the country.

Even though China has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world, stabbing attacks are not uncommon. Last month, two people were killed and 21 others injured in a stabbing attack at a hospital in southwest China's Yunnan province.

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