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Writer's pictureVictor Nwoko

Chinese Police Detain Suspect in Stabbing of 4 American Instructors at Chinese University


Chinese police have detained a 55-year-old suspect in connection with a stabbing attack on four instructors from Iowa’s Cornell College, who were teaching at Beihua University in Jilin, officials said Tuesday.


Jilin city police reported that the suspect, identified only by his surname Cui, was walking in a public park on Monday when he bumped into a foreigner and began stabbing. The attack injured four foreigners and one Chinese person who intervened. The injured were rushed to a hospital, and none are in critical condition, according to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian.



The instructors from Cornell College were in Jilin as part of a teaching exchange program with Beihua University. Cornell College President Jonathan Brand stated that the instructors were attacked while at the park with a Beihua faculty member during a public holiday in China. The U.S. State Department is monitoring the situation, noting the incident amid ongoing efforts to bolster U.S.-China relations through people-to-people exchanges.


Rep. Adam Zabner of Iowa revealed on Instagram that his brother, David Zabner, a doctoral student at Tufts University participating in the Cornell-Beihua program, was among the injured. David Zabner is recovering and expressed gratitude for the medical care he received.



News of the incident has been suppressed in China, with government control over sensitive information preventing media coverage and social media posts being quickly removed.


Cornell College is still gathering information about the attack. The college partners with Beihua University to offer courses in computer science, mathematics, and physics, with funding from Beihua. The program aims to provide engineering students with an international perspective and English-language skills, with about one-third of the core courses taught by American professors using U.S. textbooks. Students in the program can study for two years at Cornell College and earn degrees from both institutions.



Despite the attack, Lin Jian emphasized that China has effective measures to protect foreigners and expressed hope that the incident would not disrupt cultural exchanges between China and the United States.


Chinese President Xi Jinping has proposed inviting 50,000 young Americans to China over the next five years. However, the U.S. State Department’s Level 3 travel advisory for mainland China, citing risks of arbitrary detention and exit bans, has led some American universities to suspend their China programs.

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