Beijing moves quickly after two attacks that shocked the country
China says it has executed two men responsible for deadly attacks in Zhuhai and Wuxi, closing the book on two cases that shocked the country and sharpened concerns about so-called revenge on society crimes.
Fan Weiqu, 62, rammed a car into a crowd outside a sports stadium in Zhuhai in November, killing at least 35 people in what authorities said was the country's deadliest attack in more than a decade. Police said he was upset over a divorce settlement.
Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people and injured 17 in a stabbing attack at a vocational school in Wuxi in the same month. Authorities said he had failed his exams, could not graduate and was dissatisfied with his internship pay. Both death sentences were issued in December and later approved by the Supreme People's Court.
State broadcaster CCTV reported the executions on Monday. The cases fit a broader pattern that Chinese officials have described as public-security threats, with President Xi Jinping urging local governments to prevent similar attacks.
The killings also exposed the social frustration that often sits underneath these crimes. Analysts and rights groups have pointed to economic slowdown, high unemployment and limited upward mobility as factors that can turn private grievance into public violence, even in a country where violent crime remains relatively rare.
China does not publish full statistics on executions, but it is widely believed to carry out more than any other country. That secrecy, combined with the speed of the response in these two cases, means the public has to infer both the scale of punishment and the message the state wants to send.
The executions are also part of a political message from Beijing. By moving quickly after the November attacks, the authorities are trying to show that the state can punish and deter violence that appears to come from private grievance, even when the motives are messy and personal.
At the same time, the cases reflect pressures that the government cannot execute away: job frustration, failed expectations and a sense of blocked mobility. Those underlying problems are why the phrase revenge on society has become such a loaded shorthand inside China.
The state response is meant to be deterrence, but deterrence works only if people believe the system can also address the causes that feed resentment. In both Zhuhai and Wuxi, the motives described by authorities point to personal crises that turned public in a lethal way.
