Chinese Authorities Remove Public Memorials of Zhuhai Attack That Killed 35

TaiwanPlus News

Chinese authorities have removed flowers laid in remembrance of the victims of a mass killing that left 35 people dead and more than 40 injured in the city of Zhuhai. They've also wiped photos and videos of the incident from social media.

Transcript

00:00A driver's deadly actions caught on tape.

00:03The social media footage captured just a small part of an attack that saw an SUV plow through

00:09crowds of people in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai.

00:12According to authorities, at least 35 people were killed and another 43 injured near a

00:17city sports center.

00:19They say the attacker was angry about his divorce settlement and is now in a coma due

00:23to self-inflicted stab wounds.

00:26Local residents are shaken.

00:27I was shocked.

00:28My husband would go jogging there every night.

00:29I called him right away.

00:30He happened to be busy that day, so he didn't go.

00:31It felt like a terrorist attack.

00:32It was a shock to me.

00:33The situation in our society is getting worse.

00:34But few people in China may have seen this footage.

00:35Videos and photos of the incident have remained in the public domain.

00:36At the same time, several videos show government workers removing flowers from a memorial for

01:05the victims and discouraging people from lingering at the site of the attack.

01:22China watchers say it's not unusual, part of an effort to control public perception

01:27of China as a safe and stable society.

01:30The government narrative is not that nobody died in Zhuhai or that this didn't happen.

01:34What the government doesn't want is for the public to be able to lead the narrative,

01:38for the public to be able to shape the narrative, to talk about contributing factors that can

01:43lead to such an incident like this or a pattern of mass killing events in recent months.

01:50The shutting down of the memorials by officials coincides with the city's hosting of China's

01:54largest air show, in which it debuted some of its most advanced military equipment.

02:00The way the government treats people who try to commemorate or memorialize victims,

02:05that that's such a natural thing to do in society, its knee-jerk reaction is we can't

02:10even let the public properly memorialize.

02:14And I think that's one of the things that's, it's always a little bit shocking and hurtful

02:18to watch in an event like this.

02:21Whatever the motivations of the killer and of the Chinese authorities, dozens of families

02:27are left to grieve.

02:28Whether others in China will be able to grieve with them is a different question.

02:33John Su and Chris Gorin for Taiwan Plus.

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