China Executes Man for Killing Elementary Student on Way to Japanese School

Chinese Court Sentenced to Death in January
No Appeal Filed

The death penalty has been carried out for a Chinese man who killed an elementary school student attending the Japanese School in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, southern China, in September last year.

Flowers commemorating the victims are placed in front of the gate of the Japanese School in Shenzhen, China. Photo by NHK.

According to Kyodo News on April 22, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the Japanese Embassy in China of this matter the previous day.

The Chinese man, identified as Mr. A (45), was charged with fatally stabbing a 10-year-old elementary school student on September 18 last year, while the student was on the way to the Japanese School in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The victim was transported to a hospital but died within a day.

Mr. A was known to reside in Dongguan, a city near Shenzhen, and reportedly had no particular occupation.

The People's Court of China sentenced Mr. A to death in January this year, and he did not appeal the verdict.

There were suspicions that the incident was a hate crime. This was because the day of the incident marked the 93rd anniversary of the Mukden Incident (9·18 Incident) in 1931, when Japan began its invasion of Manchuria.

As a result, the Japanese government demanded measures to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals in the area, and the incident escalated into a diplomatic issue between the two countries.