Four US lecturers brutally stabbed in assault in China

Four visiting college instructors from Iowa were brutally stabbed in an attack in China on Tuesday morning. 

The educators from Cornell College were on a teaching exchange programme with a partner university, Beihua, in Jilin City.

The group had been visiting a temple in Beishan Park when they were attacked by a man with a knife. There were no reports of a motive. 

Iowa Representative Adam Zabner told Reuters his brother was one of the victims from Cornell College in Iowa.

Police have launched a manhunt for Cui Dapeng, a Jilin City resident whom they have identified as a ‘major suspect’ in the stabbing, according to the Chinese government.

Four visiting instructors from Cornell College were brutally stabbed in an attack in China on Tuesday morning. The teachers had been on a teaching exchange programme with a partner university, Beihua, in Jilin City

David Zabner, pictured, was wounded in the arm during the stabbing attack, according to his brother Iowa Representative Adam Zabner

‘My brother, David Zabner, was wounded in the arm during a stabbing attack while visiting a temple in Jilin City, China,’ Zabner said. 

‘I spoke to David…he is recovering from his injuries and doing well. My family is incredibly grateful that David survived this attack.’

A video of people lying on the ground in a park covered in blood was circulating on X on Monday, though no trace of the images could be found on Chinese social media. 

Reuters was able to identify the location of the video based on Chinese characters written on a wall, the wall’s structure and the layout of the path, but it was not able to confirm when the video was shot.

A US State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement that they were aware of reports of a ‘stabbing incident’ in Jilin, China, and were monitoring the situation.

China’s Foreign NGO Management Office of the Ministry of Public Safety issued an alert on social media platform WeChat confirming the incident, which they say took place Monday around 11.40am in Beishan Park.

The notice identified Dapeng as the alleged suspect in the case, with the public safety department advising the brief be distributed to all police forces. Officials encouraged that Dapeng be arrested if found.

The notice also alleged that the victims had suffered ‘varying degrees’ of injuries and were taken to hospital. Their conditions are non-life threatening, according to the government agency. 

No reports on the incident have been found in Chinese media. A few remaining posts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo questioned widespread censorship of the incident in official media.

‘Do they really think that censoring domestic discussion of the incident impacts whether foreigners choose to visit China or not?’ posted one Weibo user.

Xi Jinping, then-Vice President of the People’s Republic of China sits, with Sarah and Roger Lande (R) February 15, 2012 in Muscatine, Iowa. In 1985, Lande helped coordinate a visit to Muscatine for a delegation headed by Xi, then an up-and-coming official in a hog-farming region of Hebei province, which was Iowa’s ‘sister state’

The educators from Cornell College were on a teaching exchange programme with a partner university, Beihua, in Jilin City.

‘We are working through proper channels and requesting to speak with the U.S. Embassy on appropriate matters to ensure that the victims first receive quality care for their injuries and then get out of China in a medically feasible manner,’ Iowa’s Congress representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks wrote on X. 

China’s President Xi Jinping this year pledged to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for study programs to boost people-to-people ties, but a State Department Level 3 travel advisory to China warning of possible arbitrary detention and exit bans remains in place.

There are currently fewer than 900 American exchange students studying in China compared to over 290,000 Chinese students in the United States, according to U.S. data.