Violent School Stabbing Downplayed for Shanghai Expo

Shouting “We want the truth,” residents of Taixing City in eastern Jiangsu Province took to the streets last Friday.

The mass protest was prompted by a school stabbing at a local kindergarten the day before. Parents say local authorities intentionally kept them in the dark about the stabbing—and that the media have been downplaying the incident.

Thirty-two people, including 29 young children, were injured after an unemployed man attacked them with a knife. While no deaths have been reported, there are unconfirmed reports by locals that up to eleven children were killed. Worried parents said on Friday that they had not been allowed to visit their children in the hospital.

Following the protest on Friday night, authorities in Taixing moved quickly to calm the parents down. The AP reports that they sent text messages to citizens on Saturday telling them all of the parents have seen their injured children. One parent confirmed with the AP that he and other parents had been able to visit their kids.

The Taixing school stabbing was one of three that have occurred between last Wednesday and Friday.

And for the Chinese regime, the attacks came at a politically inconvenient time: The eve of the Shanghai Expo.

Circulated online, this picture of a notice sent out by the propaganda department of news service Sina says:

“In regards to the Taixing Kindergarten Injury Incident, notice has been received from higher levels that Xinhua reports are to be uniformly adopted. In light of the World Expo opening, this news shall not be placed on the front page for the time being.”

Netizens are also reporting that blogs and photos about the incident have been taken down. An online author told NTD that he received warnings from local police after he spoke with parents of attacked children.

In less than two months, there have been five incidents of knife attacks on children in schools across China.

Foto: NTDTV