China executes two men involved in 2024 deadly social revenge killings

Chinese authorities on Monday executed two men who were involved in carrying out deadly social revenge killings with a car and knife last year, according to a media report.

The authorities on Monday executed a 62-year-old man who drove his car into people exercising outside a stadium last year, killing 35 people and injuring over 40, the report said.

Fan Weiqiu, who was stated to be angry over the division of the property after his divorce, carried out the attack a day before the Chinese military held its prestigious air show in Zhuhai City.

He was executed less than a month after a court sentenced him to death.

The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court held a public trial of Fan for the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means in accordance with the law, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The court termed his motive "extremely vile" and "the methods" used by him "particularly cruel".

Also, officials on Monday executed Xu Jiajin, a man convicted of killing eight people and injuring 17 in a knife attack at a vocational school in east China's Jiangsu Province.

The death penalty of Xu was executed by the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu, after the Supreme People's Court approved the death sentence, Xinhua news agency reported.

The death sentence was handed down by the Wuxi court in December 2024.

The attack took place in November 2024, at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology. Xu was caught at the scene and confessed to his crime, according to a police statement at the time.

Car ramming incidents besides knife attacks on civilians have taken place periodically in China in recent months. The incidents are routinely blamed on disgruntled elements by security officials.

In July, this year eight persons were killed and five others injured after a vehicle crashed into pedestrians in Changsha City, the capital of central China's Hunan Province.