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Chinese Man Gets Death Sentence For Ramming Car Into Crowd, Killing 35
Epoch Times ^ | 12/29/2024 | Dorothy Li

Posted on 12/29/2024 7:51:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind

A Chinese man who killed at least 35 people last month by driving his car into a crowd was sentenced to death on Dec. 27, amid growing concerns over a recent wave of deadly attacks across the country.

The driver, identified as Fan Weiqiu, acted out of anger stemming from “a broken marriage, personal frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the way financial assets were divided during his divorce,” according to a statement from the intermediate court in Zhuhai, a city in southern China.

Fan pleaded guilty to endangering public safety through dangerous methods, according to the court’s announcement.

The incident occurred on the evening of Nov. 11, when Fan drove his SUV into a group of people exercising at the Zhuhai Sports Centre.

It took nearly 24 hours for Chinese authorities to report on the casualties from the violent attack. According to local police, at least 35 people have died, with 43 others suffering severe injuries as a result of the incident. At the time, the authorities said Fan, who was in a coma and had injuries consistent with self-harm, was apprehended at the scene.

Swift Censorship

On China’s internet, censors responded quickly, suppressing eyewitness accounts and videos related to the incident. By the evening of Nov. 12, searches on the popular microblogging platform Weibo yielded mostly official statements, with little presence of videos or photos of the incident.

The sports complex was closed on the day of the attack. On the morning of Nov. 13, members of the public left bouquets at one of the gates, only to see them removed within minutes. Some cleaning staff told AFP that they were following an “order from the top.”

Meanwhile, BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell was shoved by a man while reporting outside the complex on Nov. 12. While the man’s identity remains unclear, the BBC pointed out that such incidents are not uncommon in China, where local Communist Party officials often recruit groups of individuals to act as outraged locals, tasked with obstructing foreign reporters from covering sensitive events.

Recent Deadly Incidents

The incident, described by some Western media outlets as the deadliest in a decade, was one of a spate of tragic events that have occurred across China in recent months.

On Oct. 28, at least five people, including three children, were severely injured in a stabbing incident, according to local police, who identified the suspect as a 50-year-old man surnamed Tang.

On Nov. 16, eight people were killed and 17 others injured during a mass stabbing rampage at a vocational college in eastern China. Arrested at the scene was a 21-year-old male, identified only as Xu—a former student at the Wuxi Vocational College of Arts and Technology in Yixing in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Police said he later confessed to the killings.

On Nov. 19, a driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd outside a primary school in Changde, central Hunan Province, injuring an unspecified number of people.

Recent waves of random attacks have sparked concerns among outside observers, with some highlighting a growing desperation under the tight grip of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Logically, if someone has a grievance, they should target the person responsible. But he may not even be able to find that person,” Li Yingzhi, an exiled rights activist, previously told The Epoch Times. “Why resort to killing innocent people? Because he has reached complete despair and no longer wants to live.”

Li links these violent attacks to systemic issues in China, where people were left with little recourse to seek justice or voice dissent.

“First, there is suppression of free speech and a lack of press freedom. Second, the petitioning system is ineffective. Third, the judiciary fails to function properly. These are all systemic issues,” he said.

“If there were effective channels to resolve problems, it wouldn’t have come to this.”


TOPICS: China; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bellcurve; china; massmurder
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1 posted on 12/29/2024 7:51:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

6 weeks to sentencing. Now that’s speedy trial.

I’m reading “The Sand Pebbles” from the Steve McQueen flick in the 60’s. Things were worse back then with warring clans switching allegiance. The bad guys in the flick were the nationalists, Chiang Kai Check. They’re the ones that fled to Taiwan.


2 posted on 12/29/2024 8:00:36 PM PST by DIRTYSECRET
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To: SeekAndFind

How can there be serial killers and homicidal maniacs without access to firearms? Sarcasm


3 posted on 12/29/2024 8:04:46 PM PST by Greg123456
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Bet he doesn’t go through 40 years of appeals; outliving the relatives of the deceased.


4 posted on 12/29/2024 8:27:14 PM PST by Jarhead9297
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To: SeekAndFind
You notice that in this account, THE MAN is the perpetrator who drove his CAR into a crowd of people.

If this were the American press, THE CAR would be the perpetrator and THE MAN just happened to be in the driver's seat.

(Based on recent coverage of such things...)

5 posted on 12/29/2024 8:50:39 PM PST by dayglored (This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24)
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To: SeekAndFind
"On China’s internet, censors responded quickly"

Sort of like the Las Vegas shooting.
6 posted on 12/29/2024 8:58:23 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: SeekAndFind

Probably twice that number killed.

And it may or may not even be the guy who did it. Not much transparency in Chicomland.

This was the worst case but these events have been happening all over China.


7 posted on 12/29/2024 9:15:46 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: dayglored

“ If this were the American press”

Epoch Times is American press. Your point is good, though. Conservative Chinese anti-Chicom press in America vs our garbage leftist MSM.

Very little on these events in the press in China.


8 posted on 12/29/2024 9:20:25 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: ifinnegan
> Epoch Times is American press... Conservative Chinese anti-Chicom press in America vs our garbage leftist MSM.

Right you are, that's what I meant. thanks for the correction.

9 posted on 12/29/2024 9:37:55 PM PST by dayglored (This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24)
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To: SeekAndFind

Good, swift justice. Not something you would see in Canaduh or the US, unfortunately.


10 posted on 12/29/2024 10:38:28 PM PST by A Formerly Proud Canadian ( Ceterum autem censeo Justinius True-dope-us esse delendam. sic semper tyrannis.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Captured, tried, convicted and executed within a few weeks. They don’t mess around.


11 posted on 12/29/2024 10:47:45 PM PST by webheart (S)
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To: webheart

That’s how it’s done.


12 posted on 12/30/2024 12:15:01 AM PST by spincaster (i)
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To: webheart

[Captured, tried, convicted and executed within a few weeks. They don’t mess around.]


Since the guy was captured at the scene, this wasn’t exactly an army of Chinese Joe Fridays pounding the pavement in search of some shadowy suspect. We used to be able to try and execute murderers on a timely basis - 10 weeks after arrest in the case of the Greenlease kidnapping.

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/greenlease-kidnapping

But that was a long time ago, before we decided that stone killers were misunderstood individuals who would get a mulligan if they concocted convincing sob stories about their miserable childhoods.


13 posted on 12/30/2024 12:31:37 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s happening so often now that they are putting up bollards everywhere to try and prevent it.


14 posted on 12/30/2024 1:10:48 AM PST by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the son of man, who has no salvation.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Demonrats admire china for all sorts of things but not this, a speedy trail and execution


15 posted on 12/30/2024 2:08:20 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: DIRTYSECRET
6 weeks to sentencing. Now that’s speedy trial.

In the USA:

Gary Alvord was sentenced to death in 1974.
He raped a 10-year-old girl and strangled a grandmother, mother and daughter to death.
49 years later in 2023 he died in prison.

Thomas Eugene Creech was sentenced to death in 1974.
He has confessed to at least 42 murders.
50 years later is still in prison pending more legal challenges.


16 posted on 12/30/2024 3:02:01 AM PST by Iron Munro (Obi-Wan Kenobi : Who's the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Only a month from the crime to death sentence. We spend a year or two before the court case is even held then 20 or so years on death row if not forever.


17 posted on 12/30/2024 3:40:46 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sounds like they need assault knife and assault vehicle control over there......


18 posted on 12/30/2024 4:06:21 AM PST by Mopp4 ("It is a cruel world, Herr Hauptman. You said it yourself.")
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To: SeekAndFind

The convict is to be executed by Yu Go Nao.


19 posted on 12/30/2024 4:11:41 AM PST by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.")
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To: webheart
Captured, tried, convicted and executed within a few weeks days. They don’t mess around.
20 posted on 12/30/2024 4:45:52 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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