Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai removed memorial offerings at the scene of the deadliest mass attack and killing in the country in a decade. They removed wreaths, candles and bottles of Chinese alcohol, as the government scrambled to respond and censor online outrage.
On Monday, a male driver angry at his divorce settlement, according to police, rammed his car into a crowd at a sports centre in the city of 2.5 million. He killed 35 people and injured 43. The government took almost a day to announce the death toll.
Outrage On Government Response
This prompted outrage on Chinese social media. Posts complaining about the government’s slow response and raising questions about the mental health of a nation shaken by a recent spate of similar killings, were quickly removed from Chinese media.
“The authorities hadn’t released any information – some colleagues mentioned it and I couldn’t believe it at first, but it was confirmed later,” said a 50-year-old man who identified himself as Zheng who brought flowers to the site.
“It’s just a spontaneous feeling I had. Even though I don’t know them personally, I had family members who passed away in the past, so I understand that feeling,” said Zheng.
Offerings Cleared
Delivery drivers on motor-bikes kept dropping off flowers at the site on Wednesday but the bouquets were being immediately removed by security personnel deployed there, sometimes even before a person was able to put them on the ground.
“A lot of people placed orders last night at midnight and had the flowers delivered to the stadium,” said a nearby florist surnamed Qiu. “We usually get off work at 10 p.m. but yesterday was a special case because many customers wanted to order flowers, so we worked until almost 1 a.m.,” said Qiu.
Some wreaths, captured on photographs by Reuters reporters, carried handwritten notes: “Strangers travel well. May there be no demons in heaven,” read one. On another: “May there be no thugs in heaven. Good will triumph over evil. Rest in peace.”
Zhuhai Exhibition
The attack happened as Zhuhai captured China’s attention with the country’s largest aviation exhibition. The exhibition showcases every two years the nation’s civil and military aerospace achievements. This year, a new stealth jet fighter is on display.
While there is no indication that the two events are related, Chinese people often pick large national events with round-the-clock media coverage in an attempt to circumvent the tight censorship and highlight their grievances.
This was the second such incident to occur during the Zhuhai airshow. In 2008, at least four people were killed and 20 injured when a man drove a truck into a crowded schoolyard during the airshow. Police said that the attacker had been seeking revenge over a traffic dispute.
‘Control The Narrative’
China’s state broadcaster CCTV did not mention the attack in its 30-minute midday news bulletin. Instead, the programme led with President Xi Jinping’s departure for the APEC summit in Peru and devoted a portion of the airtime to the airshow.
Other state media, such as China Daily’s Chinese language website, also prominently displayed the news of Xi’s Peru trip. The current affairs part of China Daily’s website and the local area page did not mention the incident either.
The Weibo messaging site censored a hashtag that mentioned the death toll.
Media backed by the local government on Tuesday night published a 1,000-word write-up of a local officials’ meeting on the killing. It emphasised, among other things, the importance of “earnestly shouldering the political responsibility of ‘promoting the development of one party and ensuring the safety of one party.” However, it did not mention the details of the incident or the death toll.
Information Curtailing Pattern
Rose Luqiu, who researches Chinese censorship at Hong Kong’s Baptist University, said the way information was curtailed in Zhuhai was consistent with other incidents in China that involve significant numbers of deaths.
“The censorship is normal because all these incidents are censored to try to control the narrative. The police statement will be the only official explanation, and they won’t allow people to challenge or to discuss it,” said Luqiu.
“I think the purpose of this is to reduce panic and … if you look at previous incidents like the stabbing of Japanese school children, they’re also trying to reduce the copycat effect.”
Luqiu was referring to an incident from September, when an assailant stabbed and ultimately killed a student at a Japanese school in southern China, marking a second such attack on Japanese citizens this year.
Even though there was no indication that Japanese citizens were involved in the Zhuhai attack, the Japanese embassy in Beijing on Tuesday released a warning asking Japanese nationals living in China to keep their voices down when speaking in Japanese and to avoid going out at night.
(with inputs from Reuters)
