(GoRealNewsNow.com) – In what seemed to have been a xenophobic act, four American college instructors in communist China’s Jilin province were attacked in a stabbing at a public park, which Beijing called an “isolated” event.
The instructor’s employer reported that the four were part of an academic exchange and taught at Iowa’s Cornell College, which described the incident as “serious.”
Local police said the incident occurred shortly before noon at a park in Jilin city. The suspect, a 55-year-old local man surnamed Cui, was detained the same day.
“Cui collided into a foreigner while walking in Beishan Park, and then stabbed the foreigner and three fellow foreigners with a knife, as well as a Chinese tourist who tried to stop him,” Jilin city police said in a social media statement, adding that the victims’ injuries were “not life-threatening”.
Spokesman Lin Jian said during a foreign ministry’s regular afternoon press conference, “All the wounded were sent to the hospital… and received proper treatment; none of them are in danger of losing their life.”
“The police preliminarily judged that the case was isolated. Further investigation is under way. China is generally recognized as one of the safest countries in the world,” he added.
Jian further commented that China will continue to take relevant measures to protect the safety of all foreigners in the country effectively.
He also underscored that the isolated case will not affect the normal development of China-US people-to-people exchanges.
Additionally, Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson said on X she was “horrified” that the Cornell College faculty members had been “brutally stabbed.”
Subsequently, Governor Kim Reynolds commented she was “in touch with Iowa’s federal delegation and the state department in response to this horrifying attack.”
China’s President Xi Jinping this year pledged to invite 50,000 young Americans to China for study programs to boost people-to-people ties, but a State Department Level 3 travel advisory to China warning of possible arbitrary detention and exit bans remains in place.
Also, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said they were aware of reports of a stabbing incident in Jilin, while the province’s authorities have not commented on the attack.
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