What is behind the growing pattern of deadly rampages in China?
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China's surveillance state maintains order but struggles to prevent violent rampages. The growing frequency of such incidents points to deeper underlying social tensions.

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Summary

  • Deadly rampages are on the rise in China, including recent vehicle attacks and stabbings.
  • These assaults are seen as acts of personal revenge against an unjust society; social exclusion and lack of access to help mechanisms are considered as causes.
  • Growing economic hardships and a narrow definition of success contribute to discontent.

This November alone, at least three men carried out deadly attacks in China. A 62-year-old drove his SUV into a crowd, killing 35 people. A 21-year-old vocational student fatally stabbed eight women in his school’s female dormitory. Another driver plowed into a group of schoolchildren, leaving several injured. On Thursday, unverified reports and videos on social media pointed to yet another incident involving a truck, though official confirmation is still pending.

Such violent acts are becoming more frequent and more severe in China. But they are far from unprecedented. They carry a chilling familiarity, akin to how mass shootings are viewed in the United States. Yet, with China’s strict gun laws, attackers often resort to knives, axes or vehicles as their weapons of choice. As is the case in the U.S., schools are a disturbingly common target, and the perpetrators are overwhelmingly male.

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According to a 2019 study by researchers Ma Ziqi and Zhao Yunting from Shanghai, most violent offenders experience some form of societal exclusion before committing their crimes – whether from the job market, the education system or other institutional frameworks. Many lack access to mechanisms that could help them address their grievances, such as legal aid, mediation bodies or public forums. Others are excluded from social benefits, such as unemployment insurance, health care or even the right to enroll their children in urban schools.

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High unemployment rates, an issue identified in the 2019 study, is even more pressing today. Youth unemployment alone is estimated at around 20%. Mediation systems are poorly developed, public discourse is tightly censored, and the legal system often appears arbitrary. Migrant workers – numbering in the millions – face particularly stark challenges as they are treated as second-class citizens in urban areas, excluded from many social benefits.

When the economy is thriving, such systemic flaws often go unnoticed. Economic growth offers the promise of upward mobility, allowing people to improve their living standards through hard work. This implicit «social contract» between the people and the Communist Party – where the Party retains political control in exchange for year-on-year economic betterment – has kept dissent in check.

But the ongoing economic slowdown has left many feeling abandoned. Optimism has given way to a sense of powerlessness. A growing number of Chinese citizens are asking how, after a lifetime of hard work, they find themselves drowning in debt – losing their jobs, their homes and even their families.

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