Beijing – China has executed two men who carried out deadly attacks that killed dozens in November, raising concerns about an increase in what it calls “revenge society crimes,” state media said Monday.
Fan Weiqu, 62, the authorities said he drove a car into a crowd outside a sports stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai, killing at least 35 people ahd seriously injuring at least 43 more, who were executed on Monday. The attack was the country's deadliest in more than a decade, according to authorities, and came on the eve of the country's main air show by the People's Liberation Army held annually in the city. . Police said Fan was upset about his divorce settlement.
Tingshu Wang / REUTERS
Also in November, Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people and wounded 17 others in a stabbing attack at his vocational school in the eastern city of Wuxi. Police said Wu had failed his exams and was unable to graduate, and was dissatisfied with his salary at an internship. He was also executed on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The two men's death sentences were handed down by the intermediate people's courts in the cities of Zhuhai and Wuxi, respectively, in December and approved by the Supreme People's Court, according to state media.
The killings prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to urge local governments to take measures to prevent such attacks, which he called “revenge for society's crimes.”
China has seen a number of attacks in which suspects appear to target people at random, including school children. In October, a 50-year-old man was arrested after allegedly using a knife to attack children at a school in Beijing. Five people were injured. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a supermarket in Shanghai.
China is believed to execute more prisoners each year than the rest of the world combined, although the exact total is classified as a state secret. Executions are traditionally carried out by firearms, although lethal injection has been introduced in recent years.
