Knife Attack on Four American University Professors in China

According to officials from the United States and China, four university professors in Iowa were injured in a knife attack while touring the city of Jilin, located in northeastern China. Local police reported that the incident occurred on Monday morning, June 11, local time, in a public park in Jilin city, the provincial capital of the same name, and the attacker, a 55-year-old man from the city with the surname Qiu, has been arrested. The police added: "This individual encountered a foreigner while walking in the park and subsequently attacked this tourist and three other foreigners accompanying him, as well as a Chinese tourist who attempted to stop him with a knife." The Chinese Foreign Ministry also stated on Tuesday, June 12, that this incident was an accidental attack and would not affect relations between the people of China and the United States, and that government agencies' efforts to ensure the safety of foreign tourists would continue. According to Reuters, the American citizens were apparently visiting a temple in the public park of Jilin city. Adam Zabner, a member of the Iowa House of Representatives, told Reuters that his brother, an assistant professor at Cornell College, is one of the injured in this attack. He added: "My brother David was injured in the arm during this attack. I spoke with him. He is hospitalized and recovering." A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a daily press briefing on Tuesday that preliminary police investigations indicate that this was an accidental attack, but investigations are ongoing. All the injured are hospitalized and their injuries are not life-threatening. A video showing several people lying on the ground in the public park of Jilin city with bloody bodies has been shared on the social media platform 'X' (formerly Twitter), but no trace of these images has been seen on Chinese social media. Reuters has verified the location of the video filming in China but could not determine the timing of the filming. Several remaining messages regarding this incident on the Chinese social media platform Weibo have raised the issue of severe censorship of this incident in Chinese state media. One user on the Chinese social media platform Weibo wrote: "Do they really think that censoring discussions about this incident within the country will affect foreign tourists' decisions to travel to China?" A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told Reuters that the department is aware of the knife attack in Jilin city, China, and is following the details of the incident and the condition of the injured. The assistant professors from Cornell College who were injured in this attack are working and living in Jilin city as part of an educational exchange with Beihua University. Mariant Miller-Mix, a representative in the Iowa legislature, wrote on the social media platform 'X': "We are trying to contact the U.S. Embassy in China through official channels to ensure first the provision of necessary medical services to the injured and then their appropriate transfer to the United States." Xi Jinping, the President of China, promised this year that 50,000 American students would be invited to China for study to strengthen relations between the people of the two countries. However, the U.S. State Department still maintains a level three safety warning regarding travel to China, warning that there is a risk of unlawful detention and prevention of departure from China. According to U.S. government statistics, the number of American students currently studying in China is less than 900, while about 290,000 Chinese students study in the United States.