Four U.S. university instructors working in China were wounded in a stabbing attack at a public park on Monday, their employer said. Beijing officials later described it as an “isolated” incident.
The four Iowa Cornell College instructors were on an academic exchange with their institution confirming they were wounded in a “serious incident,” AFP reports.
Communist officials also confirmed “four foreign teachers” had been attacked but added there was nothing to fear over the incident.
“All the wounded were sent to the hospital… and received proper treatment; none of them are in danger of losing their life,” spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at the foreign ministry’s regular afternoon press conference, before continuing:
The police preliminarily judged that the case was isolated. Further investigation is under way.
China is generally recognised as one of the safest countries in the world.
China… will continue to take relevant measures to effectively protect the safety of all foreigners in China.
This isolated case will not affect the normal development of China-US people-to-people exchanges.
The BBC reports a U.S. State Department spokesperson had earlier told the outlet they were aware of reports of a stabbing incident in Jilin, but could not provide more information.
Images circulating appear to show at least three people bleeding and lying on the ground however the incident appears to have been quickly censored on China’s internet.
Beijing and Washington have sought to re-establish people-to-people exchanges in recent times, the BBC report makes clear.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has unveiled a plan to invite 50,000 young Americans to China in the next five years, while Chinese diplomats say a travel advisory by the U.S. State Department has discouraged Americans from going to China.
Tourists visit the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen scenic spot in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, May 5, 2024 as foreign arrivals remain low in the Communist country. (CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty)
As Breitbart News reported, foreign tourism remains extremely low in China.
The authoritarian Communist country has only entertained 35 million foreign visitors last year, versus 98 million before the pandemic, and, of course, many of those visitors were business travelers and students rather than tourists.
Round-trip flights between America and China stand at less than a fifth of their volume in 2019, in part because U.S. airlines and their unions demand protection from “unfair competition” by China’s state-supported airlines.
