Driver Fan Weiqiu sentenced to death after car attack

A man who killed dozens of people when he drove his car into people training outside a stadium in southern China has been sentenced to death.

Fan Weiqiu was charged with “endangering public security,” according to a court statement.

At least 35 people were killed and dozens injured in the November 11 attack in Zhuhai, which is believed to be the deadliest on Chinese soil in a decade.

A 62-year-old man decided to drive into a crowd of people on a treadmill at high speed because he was “dissatisfied” with how his property was divided after a divorce, a court heard.

The court called his motives “extremely vile” and his “methods” “particularly brutal.” One witness told Caixin magazine that he drove “in a loop”, leaving the victims “injured all over the running track”, a popular exercise spot.

Fan, who was initially in a coma and was stabbed, pleaded guilty to the victims’ families and members of the public, according to Chinese media.

The attack was one of 19 attacks on strangers across China this year – including two within a week of the attack in Zhuhai.

Not all have transportation involved. In February, at least 21 people were killed in a mass knife and gun attack in Shandong. This incident was heavily censored by the Chinese authorities.

In total, as a result of these terrorist attacks, at least 63 people died and 166 were injured. This is a sharp increase compared to previous years – for example, 16 killed and 40 injured in 2023.

Some suggest that the rise in random attacks may point to a general rise in frustration and anger as the economy slows and uncertainty about the future grows.

“These are symptoms of a society with a lot of hidden resentments,” Lynette Ong, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Toronto in Canada, told AFP in November.