Beijing: The Most Bloodthirsty Young Adult City In China?

A 38-year-old man set off an explosion in his Beijing apartment block, fatally injuring 15 people—an attack reminiscent of one by a Muslim assailant targeting children back in Xinjiang province—who were spending the day at his children’s birthday party.

Chinese police have yet to apprehend the assailant, who was reportedly upset that his wife had also left him, but they did try to rescue the children and chase after the assailant. Four of the children were reported to be slightly injured.

China continues to face a monstrous child murder problem. Previously this year, a Xinjiang student threw a parcel bomb at a kindergarten where about a dozen children had just finished lunch. It missed them, but wounded four teachers and a 5-year-old girl in the parking lot outside.

At the end of September last year, a 29-year-old mentally unstable man stabbed 28 children at a primary school in China’s south-eastern Jiangxi province. This attack included a 56-year-old man who also attacked children with an axe at a primary school in Henan province in 2016, a rare example of more than one assault in one day.

A deadly urban-staged event by one of the most deadliest and best-trained terrorist forces on earth has (for the second time in history) targeted children at their home, in what might be a horrific echo of political goals.

This is hardly a form of isolated or sporadic problem, but a province in the heart of China experiencing a seriously alarming number of murderous attacks against children on behalf of homegrown Islamist and other terrorist forces. It’s a fact reported by Chinese state-run media as early as 2015. This June, Wang Zhen, a local official, explained: “In the 14 months from March of last year to May of this year, there were 41 such attacks around this region, 30 of which were against minors.”

However, current laws are likely to make it virtually impossible to prosecute those responsible for acts which involve the use of guns and bombs against children. Under Chinese law, terrorist attacks (whatever form they take) can only be prosecuted under strict laws involving murderers. But, because children are not allowed to participate in political action (assuming the current regime actually has any conception of that legal concept), no further legal action can be taken against those who target them.

A new Chinese legislation, detailed by the Guardian, will allow police and officials to inspect people’s personal belongings and other possessions without a search warrant. A major feature of this new proposed law is aimed at tackling instability, but will only be able to enforce behavior with the result that a small number of useful people (for individuals and officials, but probably not for the public in general) will be ruined.

Why is it that people have not condemned in any significant way the use of knives and explosives on children? Governments should be putting pressure on their people to make it clear that it is unacceptable.

Let’s hope it never comes to a bloodbath at school gates.