Four American university tutors have been “brutally stabbed” in a rare attack as they visited a temple in a public park in China.
The instructors from Cornell College, a private liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were taken to hospital after the incident in China’s northern province of Jilin on Monday.
Photos and videos that circulated on social media on Monday appear to show several people lying on the ground, soaked in blood.
Representative Ashley Hinson (R-Ia) on Monday wrote on X, “Horrified that multiple Cornell College faculty members were brutally stabbed in China. My team has been in communication with Cornell College & will do everything in our power to bring these Iowans home safely. Join me in praying for their health & safety.”
Governor Kim Reynolds (R-Ia) wrote on X on Monday that she is “in touch with Iowa’s federal delegation and the State Department in response to this horrifying attack. Please pray for their full recovery, safe return, and their families here at home.”
Representative Adam Zabner (D-Ia) said that his brother was one of the victims.
“My brother, David, was wounded in the arm during a stabbing attack while visiting a temple in Jilin City, China,” he told the Reuters news agency.
“I spoke to David… He is recovering from his injuries and doing well. My family is incredibly grateful that David survived this attack.”
The group had been visiting a temple in Beishan Park when they were attacked by a man with a knife, he added.
Horrified that multiple Cornell College faculty members were brutally stabbed in China. My team has been in communication with Cornell College & will do everything in our power to bring these Iowans home safely. Join me in praying for their health & safety.
— Ashley Hinson (@RepAshleyHinson) June 10, 2024
Chinese police said a suspect, a 55-year-old man surnamed Cui, had been arrested on Monday.
A US State Department spokesman confirmed that it was aware of “reports of a stabbing incident in Jilin,” but did not provide further details.
The US embassy in Beijing did not immediately return The Telegraph’s requests for information on Tuesday, and added that the assailant’s motive remains unclear.
Heavily censored
News of the incident has been heavily censored in China, but some Chinese X users jokingly made comparisons to the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising in 1900 aimed at pushing foreigners out of the country.
The teachers were in China as part of a “long-standing” partnership program with Beihua University in Jilin, northeast China.
Cornell College said that no students were involved in the program.
“The police have preliminarily judged that this was a random incident but an investigation is ongoing,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters at a daily briefing on Tuesday.
“All the injured individuals were immediately taken to the hospital and were given appropriate critical care, no one’s life is in danger,” Mr Lin said.
The incident comes as Washington attempts to rekindle ties between American and Chinese citizens, with educational exchanges struggling to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, has proposed a plan to invite 50,000 American students to China in the next five years, but a State Department travel warning has discouraged some students and universities from continuing exchanges.
According to Nicholas Burns, the US Ambassador to China, there are only some 880 American students currently studying in China, down from more than 11,000 in the 2018-2019 academic year.
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