Chinese silently lay flowers for murdered Japanese boy in Shenzhen

SHENZEN, China — Workers on motorcycles continue to deliver bouquets of flowers to a Shenzhen school to “secretly” pay their final respects to a 10-year-old Japanese boy who was stabbed to death near the school.

A driver delivered flowers on the morning of September 20, two days after the fatal attack.

“I have made seven or eight deliveries since yesterday. Some of them are from customers in Wuhan (in Hubei province) and Shanxi province,” he said.

Although major Chinese media did not report the attack on the boy, information about his death spread through social media on September 19.

Since then, the number of people presenting flowers to the Japanese school in Shenzhen that the boy attended has increased. Even people in more remote parts of China are apparently using delivery services to present flowers and pay their respects.

However, the flower donors prefer anonymity and some have even refrained from handing over flowers. They apparently fear that their acts of compassion could lead to possible reprisals by the Chinese authorities.

A 30-year-old man who visited the site on September 19 with a bouquet of flowers was surprised to see “so many public security police officers.”

Dozens of people were standing near the school. Apparently, there were also plainclothes police officers among them.

“I may get in trouble (with the police) in a few days,” the man told me. “But I want to say that normal people think that such incidents should not happen.”

A 54-year-old man who also laid flowers on September 19 said: “As a Chinese, I condemn (the attacker's actions).”

But he had a request.

“Please don't take a photo of my face. That will cause problems,” he said.

On September 20, an elderly man wrote “May he rest in peace” on a greeting card enclosed with a bouquet of flowers at a flower shop near the school.

According to a store employee, flowers for such offers were sold out on September 19, and people in Beijing and Tianjin ordered flowers online to have them delivered to the school.

However, a young man who had bought a bouquet of flowers apologetically offered to return it to the store.

“The authorities are taking photos. That's not good because I work nearby,” he said.

When he learned that he was speaking to a Japanese reporter, he bowed and said, “I'm sorry.”

In front of the store stood a man wearing sunglasses with a camera-like object attached to his hip pointing at the store.

When I asked him what he was doing, he just said, “I came to check,” and walked away.

Chinese authorities have arrested a suspect in connection with the boy's killing but have not disclosed a motive for the crime.

Even before the attack, anti-Japanese posts appeared on China's social media. And after the boy's death, anti-Chinese posts spread on Japan's social media.

There are growing fears that the incident could damage relations between Japan and China.

The issue seems so sensitive in China that people are afraid to lay flowers at the crime scene and answer questions from the media.