Brother tells CNN that stabbing victim in China is “fine”: “Seems to be recovering”

In a rare case of violent crime against foreigners in China, four US university instructors teaching in the country were stabbed while visiting a busy public park. A CNN Iowa state Rep. Adam Zabner, brother of one of the victims, said he is “fine.”

The politician said that his brother, David Zabner, was on his second visit to China with Cornell College, is “fine”, “has been stitched up and appears to be recovering”, after speaking with him this Tuesday morning (11). , Beijing time.

The other three victims survived the attack, Zabner said, adding that he could not comment on their condition.

The case

Educators at Cornell College, a private liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were injured “in a serious incident” on Monday while participating in a program in partnership with Beihua University in the city of Jilin. , in northeast China, according to the college.

“We are in contact with all four instructors and are assisting them at this time,” Cornell College President Jonathan Brand said in a statement, adding that no students participated in the program.

Footage purportedly showing the daylight aftermath of the attack, which emerged on Chinese social media on Monday but was quickly censored, showed two men and a woman lying on the ground covered in large bloodstains, surrounded by onlookers.

They appeared conscious and talking on their cellphones, the video showed.

Details of the attack, including the motive and identity of the attacker or attackers, remain unclear, and Chinese authorities have not yet commented on the incident.

A CNN located video of the attack in Beishan Park, a popular green space in the center of Jilin city, less than half an hour’s drive from Beihua University. This Monday was a public holiday in China.

Cooperation

China has been trying to increase its educational cooperation with the US, which has suffered considerable setbacks due to the Covid pandemic and bilateral tensions.

During a visit to the US in November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced that the country would invite 50,000 young Americans to exchange and study programs in China over the next five years, with the aim of fostering people-to-people ties between the two countries.

The Chinese leader mentioned his own long-standing ties to Iowa in his announcement. Xi stayed with a host family in Iowa during his first visit to the US nearly four decades ago, an experience he described as “unforgettable.”

Last week, Xi encouraged Chinese and US universities to “strengthen exchanges and cooperation” in a letter to the president of Kean University in New Jersey, which has a joint venture with Wenzhou University, according to media reports. state-owned.

Security

China has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, in part due to its strict gun controls and powerful mass surveillance.

However, the country continues to face mass knife attacks in public places. In May, two people were killed and 21 others injured in a knife attack at a hospital in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

Last year, six people were killed and one injured after being stabbed outside a kindergarten in the southern province of Guangdong. And a 2022 knife attack, also at a kindergarten, killed three people and injured six in the country’s eastern Jiangxi province.

(Reporting by Nectar Gan, Yong Xiong, Simone McCarthy, and Sarah Dewberry. CNN’s Steve Almasy and Rashard Rose also contributed to this report)