Chinese Man Sentenced To Death For ‘Revenge On Society’ Attack That Killed 35

A man in China has been sentenced to death after driving into a crowd last month and killing 35 people in what is being called a “revenge on society” attack.

Fan Weiqiu drove into the crowd because he was upset about his divorce settlement, the Associated Press reported. A court in Zhuhai sentenced him to death on Friday after Fan pleaded guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means.

Fan’s “criminal motive was extremely despicable, the nature of the crime was extremely vile, the means of the crime were particularly cruel, and the consequences of the crime were particularly severe, resulting in great social harm,” the court said, according to the AP.

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Fan’s crime is one of many recent attacks in China being referred to as “revenge on society crimes,” the AP reported.

In November, three such attacks took place, including Fan’s. Another incident involved a man who rammed his car into a crowd outside of an elementary school in Changde City because he was angry after losing his investments, the BBC reported. The attack wounded 30 people, including 18 children. The man received a suspended death sentence for the crime.

The third incident involved a 21-year-old student who failed his tests and stabbed 17 people, killing eight, at a vocational school in Yixing, the AP reported.

Wu Qiang, a former political science professor who was fired after researching the 2014 Occupy protests in Hong Kong, told the AP that pressure from society seems to be behind the attacks.

“On the surface, it seems like there are individual factors, but we see there’s a common link,” Wu said. “This link is, in my personal opinion, every person has a feeling of injustice. They feel deeply that this society is very unfair and they can’t bear it anymore.”

China President Xi Jinping has demanded local governments prevent future “revenge” attacks, with local officials immediately vowing to look into personal disputes that could trigger them. This, however, would compound China’s increasing involvement in the personal lives of its citizens, including mass censorship.

Part of this censorship extends to the attacks themselves, the AP reported, with Chinese authorities censoring videos and eyewitness accounts on social media while releasing the most basic information hours after the attack. For example, the death toll in Fan’s attack wasn’t announced for a full day, and only then was it learned that 35 died and another 43 were injured. It was also reported at that time that Fan was found in the vehicle trying to stab himself with a knife.