10-year-old Japanese student in China dies after stabbing

A child attending a Japanese school in the Chinese city of Shenzhen was killed in a stabbing attack on Wednesday, officials confirmed on Thursday, the second such attack near Japanese educational institutions in China in recent months.

Chinese authorities said the 10-year-old boy, a Japanese national with a Japanese father and Chinese mother, was stabbed to death on his way to school at around 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning by a 44-year-old attacker surnamed Zhong.

He died in the early hours of Thursday morning, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters in Tokyo.

“Medical experts have made every effort to save his life, and the Chinese side will provide his family with the necessary support to manage his affairs,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a regular press conference in Beijing.

“Based on the information currently available, this is an isolated case and such incidents could occur in any country,” he added.

On Thursday afternoon, people laid wreaths outside the gates of the school in Shenzhen's affluent Shekou district, which is home to the bulk of the city's foreign community and most of its international schools.

“As Chinese people, we are against this behavior, we are against teachings of hatred,” said a man who identified himself as an ordinary Shenzhen resident.

“Many of us have been exposed to such teachings of hatred for a long time, which has led to such dire consequences,” he added.

The attack occurred on the anniversary of a 1931 incident that led to the outbreak of war between China and Japan, a sensitive date at a time when diplomatic relations are at risk of deteriorating.

“I actually didn't know that September 18 is the day the Chinese take revenge for things that happened in World War II,” said a Japanese father of two in Shenzhen who asked to be identified only by his surname Suzuki for security reasons.

“I have been living here for seven years and I didn’t know that we as Japanese have to be careful in China.”

Japan has asked China for a detailed explanation of the facts and strict security measures, Kamikawa told reporters earlier in the day.

“I take the incident extremely seriously,” she added.

“Something like this should not happen in any country. In particular, I sincerely regret that this heinous act was committed against a child on her way to school.”

The local Japanese Chamber of Commerce has called on the Japanese government to ensure the safety of its citizens in the region, the organization said in a statement.

This was the second attack of this kind near a Japanese educational institution in China in recent months. In June, a man attacked a bus belonging to a Japanese school in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou. A Chinese citizen who tried to protect a Japanese mother and her child from the attacker died.