China deals with violence amid ‘revenge against society’ attacks

This month’s attacks, including car-rammings, follow a series of similar incidents earlier in the year

China is grappling with a spate of violent rampages that have left dozens of people dead, sparking a conversation about whether “revenge against society” attacks are becoming more common.

On 19 November, a 39-year-old man drove a car into a group of people near a school in Changde, a city in central China, injuring several students. It came days after another car-ramming attack in the southern city of Zhuhai had killed 35 people outside a sports centre, China’s deadliest mass killing in a decade. That same week, a former student in another city killed eight people and injured 17 others on a stabbing spree at a vocational college.