Amid public anger, Chinese government resorted to the execution of two men involved in killing of random people, but it may not have addressed the underlying causes of these attacks. Health issues, economic woes, unemployment, societal pressure, and even lack of political freedom have emerged as major factors responsible for the mental challenges among Chinese citizens engaging in revenge attacks. These attacks are manifestations of these mental health struggles and frustrations, which can prove deary for Beijing if ignored.
In January 2025, two men were executed for “revenge on society crimes”. At least 35 people were killed after the 62-year-old Fan Weiqu rammed his car into a crowd outside a sports stadium in the southern city of Zhuhai in November 2024. In the same month, a youngster named Xu Jiajin stabbed several people, killing eight of them while injuring 17 at his vocational school in the eastern city of Wuxi. Both committed crimes out of personal frustration.
The economic slowdown in China has fuelled psychological distress, especially, in the aftermath of Covid-19. The diminishing employment opportunities are aggravating economic woes. This has led to a pervasive sense of societal unfairness and disparity, thus causing violence against random bystanders, said Beijing-based psychotherapist Xiaojie Qin. “Some people who were left behind and socially and economically more marginalised can feel they are not being treated fairly and some people who don’t have enough emotional regulation, they have outbursts, sometimes violent outbursts,” she said.
In September 2024, a 37-year-old man killed three people and injured 15 others at a busy supermarket in Shanghai. Over 90 people lost their lives in 20 such attacks in 2024. In 2023, the number of deaths was 16 when perpetrators attacked pedestrians or strangers. In May 2024, a man attacked primary school girls with a knife in Guixi of Jiangxi province, killing two of them. Social media is full of videos of revenge attacks on strangers by Chinese citizens.
While it is challenging for Chinese citizens to question the decisions and policies of the Beijing government, they expressed their frustration and anger on social media. “The Chinese people are so miserable,” one said. Another social media user said “This tragedy reflects the darkness within society.” Netizens also asked if ‘taking revenge attacks’ were a symptom of deeper societal problems. “If there is a widespread lack of job security and huge pressure to survive… then society is bound to be full of problems, hostility and terror,” wrote one WeChat user.
The communist party-ruled Chinese government resorted to censorship and strict crackdown rather than addressing the underlying problems that incite revenge against society attacks, said Peidong Sun, Associate Professor at Cornell University. “Public attacks are often reactions to repression; the irony is that the government generally responds to them with even more repression. If (government) clings to a centralized, authoritarian style of governance, societal fractures are bound to intensify,” he said. The strict government controls have only exacerbated the problem which would only aggravate frustration and violence, he added.
Policy analyst Irene Chou said the government response worsened the problem as people could not discuss the brutal incidents nor examine the underlying societal stressors motivating the perpetrators. “The official crisis response to these killings presents a grim pattern of censorship – removing online discussions and delaying news reports, erasure of grief and trauma, and intensifying surveillance against possible dissenters. This mechanism of repression, in and of itself, exposes structural flaws in China’s political system,” Chou said.
While China has reported lower crimes than the global averages, the underreporting and lack of transparency make it doubtful and questioning. Observers said Beijing’s negligence toward people’s mental health problems and social alienation may lead to a bigger crisis. “Without systemic reforms to deal with these issues, China risks fostering a cycle of frustration and unrest that could increasingly erupt into violence and even threaten the country’s long-term stability,” Sun said.
Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said “It can exacerbate societal fears and distrust of the government within China, particularly if seemingly random, large-scale violent incidents persist as they have this year,” Chou said Chinese government enhanced surveillance rather than transparency and opening channels for communication. “This is likely to continue the cycle of repression, resistance, and retaliatory violence, prolonging an era of domestic instability,” he said.