China executes driver who killed dozens in car attack

China has executed two men responsible for two deadly attacks within a week in November last year.

Fan Weiqiu, 62, killed at least 35 people and injured dozens more after he drove his car into people exercising outside a stadium in Zhuhai, in what is thought to be the deadliest attack on Chinese soil for a decade.

Days later, Xu Jiajin, 21, killed eight people and wounded 17 others in a stabbing spree at his university in the eastern city of Wuxi.

Authorities said Fan was driven by “dissatisfaction” over how his property had been divided following his divorce, while Xu carried out his attack after “failing to obtain his diploma due to poor exam results”.

Fan was detained at the scene on 11 November, where he was found with self-inflicted wounds.

In December, he was found guilty of “endangering public safety”, with the court describing his motive as “extremely vile” and “the methods” used “particularly cruel”.

His execution on Monday comes less than a month after a court sentenced him to death.

In the case of Xu, police said he confessed to his crime “without hesitation” on 16 November. He was sentenced to death on 17 December, with the court hearing that the circumstances of his crime were “particularly bad” and “extremely serious”.

China has been grappling with a spate of public violence of late, with many attackers believed to have been spurred by a desire to “take revenge on society” – where perpetrators target strangers over their personal grievances.

The number of such attacks across China reached 19 in 2024.

Within days of the Zhuhai and Wuxi attacks, a man drove into a crowd of children and parents outside a primary school in Changde city, injuring 30 of them.

Authorities said the man, Huang Wen, wanted to vent his anger after dealing with investment losses and family conflict.

Huang was handed a suspended death sentence last month – it could be commuted to life imprisonment if he does not commit another crime in the next two years.

Analysts earlier told the BBC that the string of mass killings raised questions about how people in China have been dealing with various sources of stress, such as the country’s sluggish economy.

Some of them point out that outlets for venting frustrations have also narrowed, or been shut down altogether, over the years – resulting in people hard-pressed to find ways to deal with their emotions.

Taken together, these factors suggest the lid is tightening on Chinese society, creating a pressure cooker-like situation.

“The tensions do seem to be building, and it doesn’t look like there is any way it is going to ease up in the near future,” says George Magnus, an economist at Oxford University’s China Centre.