Chinese Court Sentences To Death Japanese Child Stabbing In Shenzhen China

JAKARTA - A Chinese court sentenced a man to death over a fatal stabbing of a Japanese boy in the southern city of Shenzhen.

The boy, a 10-year-old Japanese national born to a Japanese citizen and mother of Chinese nationality, was stabbed on her way to school in September 2024. He died the next day.

The attacker, identified by Chinese authorities as a 44-year-old man surnamed Zhong, was arrested on November 30 on suspicion of murder, Kyodo reported.

The attack came at the commemoration of the 1931 incident that sparked war between China and Japan, a sensitive date when diplomatic relations were in danger of worsening.

Kyodo said on Friday the Chinese authorities described the case as an accidental and isolated incident, without giving a motive.

This is the second incident that occurred near Japan's education center in China last year, after another incident in June in which a man attacked a bus used by a Japanese school in the eastern city of Suzhou, resulting in the death of a Chinese citizen who tries to protect a Japanese mother and child.

A court in Suzhou sentenced the assailant to death on Thursday, Kyodo reported.