Recent violent incidents have been escalating in China, and experts say that the reactions of Chinese social media users to these events have exposed a widespread dissatisfaction and concern over the decline in the Chinese economy.
On Wednesday morning, a stabbing incident occurred in the Shanghai metro, where a 54-year-old man surnamed Shen entered the Shanghai Metro Line 9 Hechuan Road Station and attacked three passengers with a knife he had brought with him.
Although the metro station, like major subway stations in China, has security checks at the entrance, the suspect managed to bring in the weapon for unknown reasons. Shanghai police stated that the suspect was detained after injuring three people, and the case is under investigation.
This incident has become a hot topic on Weibo, with around 170 million views so far. Netizens are speculating about the motives of the attacker. Some believe that the perpetrator is a stock investor who was affected by the earlier sharp decline in the Chinese stock market.
One user wrote, “The pressure of this economic environment is transmitted to everyone, and even a slight mishap could push someone to a dead end… Do not easily provoke or oppress others, as you are uncertain where their breaking point lies. Do not let yourself be a casualty of the economic environment.”
Another netizen posted, “The economy is bad, social problems are increasing, people’s hostility is high, don’t be confrontational, don’t stare.”
Prior to the Shanghai metro stabbing incident, similar violent incidents had been reported in various parts of China. Last week, four American teachers at a university were severely injured by a local man in Jilin Province.
David Zabner, one of the injured American teachers, told Iowa Public Radio, “The police told us that he (the suspect) was unemployed, was having a stroke of bad luck, and one of us happened to cross paths with him, so he decided to respond in his way.”
In early June, the chairman of a political consultative conference in a county in Shanxi Province was killed in a dispute over illegally occupied state-owned housing. In May of this year, a primary school in Jiangxi Province experienced another knife attack, resulting in two deaths and ten injuries. In a park in Chenzhou, Hunan, a crime occurred leading to 3 deaths and 2 injuries.
Additionally, in May, a car in Wusheng County, Sichuan Province, ran over pedestrians on the roadside, resulting in 5 fatalities. In Zigong City, Sichuan, there was a knife attack incident on bus route 37.
Although the police have not clarified the motive of the suspect in the Shanghai metro stabbing case, the public’s response highlights people’s worries about China’s economic decline.
Hanzhang Liu, an assistant professor of political science at Pitzer College in California, told Bloomberg, “The assailants may be influenced by the economic slowdown and this anxiety. But more likely, people are projecting their own anxiety while trying to understand the reasons behind these violent incidents.”
According to the Freedom House’s China Dissent Monitor project, protests in China related to the economy, especially the collapse of the real estate market, are becoming more frequent, accounting for 80% of protest events in the previous year. Data from the recruitment platform Zhaopin shows that nearly one-third of white-collar workers have experienced a decrease in wages during this period.
Under the Chinese Communist Party’s tight social control, the succession of public violent incidents becomes particularly noticeable.
Bloomberg cited research from the Guangdong Police College, revealing that in 140 notable violent cases from 2000 to 2021, most criminals did not have prior criminal records. The rapid changes in the Chinese economy have made life difficult for some groups, making them more prone to expressing dissatisfaction through violence.
Lynette Ong, a professor in the political science department at the University of Toronto, said that Chinese people developed many mental health issues during the three-year lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These problems have become more severe due to economic pressures such as high youth unemployment rates.
She said, “In a high-pressure society, random acts of violence can be seen as an expression of repressed social discontent.”
(This article referenced relevant reports from Bloomberg)