Japanese boy dies after stabbing in China, Fumio Kishida demands “explanation”

Tokyo:

Japan's prime minister on Thursday demanded an explanation from Beijing on the fatal knife attack on a Japanese student in Shenzhen and urged China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens. Beijing responded with a message of condolences for the killing and called it an isolated incident that “could happen in any country.” While the attacker's motive remained unclear, Japanese officials called for increased security measures around Japanese schools in China.

“At this moment, we urge China to make an explanation on the facts of what happened. Since the incident happened more than a day ago, we expect them to make an explanation as soon as possible,” said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, calling the attack “extremely despicable.”

“A case like this must not be repeated. We will urge China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens and prevent a recurrence, while at the same time doing everything possible as a government,” Kishida told reporters.

Police in Shenzhen said a man attacked a minor on Wednesday morning and the child was taken to hospital. The suspect, a 44-year-old man, was arrested, they said.

Japanese media reported that the boy was a 10-year-old Japanese national who lived in the southern Chinese city and was attacked near a Japanese school.

Beijing expressed “regret and sadness” over the “regrettable incident” on Thursday.

“We mourn the boy's death and express our condolences to his family,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference.

When asked whether this was an isolated case, Lin said that “according to the current understanding of the situation, this is an isolated case.”

“Similar cases could happen in any country,” he told reporters.

Late Wednesday, before the boy died, Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Masataka Okano summoned China's ambassador to Japan, Wu Jianghao, to express his “grave concern” about the attack.

Okano urged security to be strengthened, including around Japanese schools throughout China, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

In June, a Japanese mother and her child were injured in another knife attack in Suzhou near Shanghai. The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the incident at the time as an “isolated case.”

A 55-year-old Chinese woman died while trying to stop the attacker. She was honored by the local government after her death for her efforts.

It remained unclear whether the latest incident was politically motivated.

It occurred on the anniversary of the “Mukden Incident” or “Manchurian Incident” in 1931 in the run-up to World War II.

An explosion on a railway line was used by Japanese soldiers as a pretext to occupy the city of Mukden (now Shenyang) and invade the wider region.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also did not comment at a regular press conference on the significance of the date, which, according to state media, was marked by air raid sirens in several cities on Wednesday.

Relations have deteriorated in recent years as China has taken a more assertive stance in territorial disputes in the region and Japan has strengthened its security ties with the United States and its allies.

China banned imports of Japanese seafood last year after Japan began discharging treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific.

After publication began, Japanese schools and consulates were pelted with bricks and eggs. Businesses in Japan were also inundated with annoying calls from Chinese numbers.

This week, a Chinese aircraft carrier passed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan, the first such incursion into Japanese waters, a zone within 24 nautical miles of the coast.

Government spokesman Hiroshi Moriya described the incident as “completely unacceptable from the perspective of the security situation in Japan and the region.”

“We have communicated our serious concerns to the Chinese side through diplomatic channels,” he said.

China said the passage, which came less than a month after the first confirmed incursion of a Chinese surveillance aircraft into Japanese airspace, was in line with international law.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)