China executed a man on Monday who was responsible for the deadliest mass attack in the nation’s history, a car rampage in November 2024 that killed 35 people in the southern city of Zhuhai.
In China’s worst such crime since 2014, Fan Weiqiu, 62, intentionally drove a small SUV through groups of people working out outside a sports complex on November 11, injuring 45 people.
He was sentenced to death last month, with a court saying his motives “were extremely vile, (and) the nature of the crime extremely egregious.”
State broadcaster CCTV reported Monday a Zhuhai court “executed Fan Weiqiu in accordance with the execution order issued by the Supreme People’s Court.”
According to CCTV, the municipal public prosecutor “sent personnel to supervise (the execution) in accordance with the law.”
During his trial last month, Fan entered a guilty plea in front of some of the victims’ relatives, officials, and members of the public, causing widespread public shock and introspection about the state of society in China.
Fan was arrested at the scene with self-inflicted knife wounds and went into a coma, according to police at the time.
Due to “a broken marriage, personal frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the division of property after divorce,” the court determined that he “decided to vent his anger.”
It also found that his actions were “particularly cruel, and the consequences particularly severe, posing significant harm to society.”
Although violent crime is generally less common in China than in many Western nations, there were many mass casualty incidents there last year.
The ruling Communist Party’s reputation for rigorous public security and crime prevention was put to the test by stabberies and vehicle attacks.
Additionally, they contained a shock effect that made some people wonder about perceived social evils including depressed social mobility, rising unemployment, and a weakening economy.
CCTV said Monday that a man who killed eight people and injured seventeen in a mass stabbing in November has been given the death punishment by a different court in eastern Jiangsu province.
According to CCTV, Xu Jiajin, a 21-year-old ex-student who attacked a Wuxi vocational school, was put to death “in accordance with the law.”
According to CCTV, he was also given a death sentence in December after the court determined that his offense was “extraordinarily serious.”
Xu was permitted to “meet with his close relatives” before his execution, the broadcaster added.
China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, but rights groups including Amnesty believe the country executes thousands every year