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

Tourists walk past a gateway with the name “Beishan” seen at the Beishan Park in northeastern China’s Jilin province on Jan 23, 2020. Four instructors from Iowa’s Cornell College teaching at Beihua University in northeastern China were attacked in the Beishan public park, reportedly with a knife, officials at the U.S. school and the State Department said Tuesday, June 11, 2024.

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.

Four United States Instructors from Iowa’s Cornell College Wounded in a Knife Attack in Beishan Park, Jilin City, Chuanying District, China.

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.

Chinese police say a suspect( 55 year old man) is in custody in a stabbing attack on four instructors from #Iowa’s Cornell College who were teaching at a Chinese university in the northeast city of Jilin.

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.

The four instructors from Cornell College, a private liberal arts college in Iowa, were visiting a public park in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin while on an exchange program.

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.