Zhuhai Sports Center car crash incident
On the evening of November 11, 2024, in Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, the People's Republic of China, a 62-year-old man surnamed Fan drove a vehicle into the walking trail of the National Fitness Plaza of Zhuhai Sports Center and indiscriminately hit the crowd. According to the police report, as of the early morning of November 13, 2024, the incident had caused 35 deaths and 43 injuries (excluding one perpetrator who attempted suicide). The incident was named Zhuhai "11.11" car-running case by the public security organs.
This incident is one of the most serious attacks in mainland China since a series of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang in 2014; it is also another car-running incident in Zhuhai before and after the Zhuhai Air Show since the mud truck crash in 2008.
The location involved, "Zhuhai National Fitness Plaza", is an open public space of Zhuhai Sports Center, the largest sports venue in Zhuhai. It is located in Meihua Street, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City (also known as "New Xiangzhou"), and is open to citizens for activities during normal times. The square is about the size of two football fields, with walking trails, athletic fields, and football fields. In the evening, many residents take walks and gather to dance in the square. Stone piers and fences are set up around to prevent vehicles from entering.
According to multiple videos on social platforms, at around 19:48 on November 11, 2024, a small off-road vehicle with a local "Yue C" license plate rushed into the pedestrian path of the National Fitness Square of Zhuhai Sports Center. Witnesses said that after the vehicle destroyed the railings, it indiscriminately circled the sports center and hit the walking crowd. Many people were knocked to the ground or sat on the side of the road waiting for rescue because they could not escape in time. The vehicle fled the scene along the same route after hitting many passers-by.
Some of the people who fell to the ground at the scene of the incident wore the uniform sportswear of the local non-governmental organization "Beautiful Zhuhai Hiking Team" and held a red flag with the name of the non-governmental organization. A survivor said that there were six to seven hiking teams at the scene, each with 40 to 50 people, aged between 40 and 70. Some of the team members were seriously injured or even died on the spot after being hit. The rescue took about an hour. Fortunately, the incident did not happen on a weekend, otherwise the casualties would be more serious. A family member of the deceased said that her husband and some people were arranged to the last row of the team because they were not wearing hiking team uniforms, and became the most seriously hit group. An eyewitness said that the music played by the hiking teams was loud at the time of the incident, which covered the sound of the collision and shouting, leaving the crowd no time to dodge.
Xu Chengchun, a Singaporean architect who was responsible for designing the National Fitness Center, said in an interview afterwards: "Vehicles are not allowed to enter the square, and stone piers and fences are set up around it. The suspect may have driven all the way into the square area from the other side of the sports center."
On the evening of the day when the incident occurred, the Zhuhai Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice confirming the incident and preliminarily introducing the incident. On the evening of November 12, the Zhuhai police issued another notice disclosing details such as the time of the incident and the casualties. Zhuhai CPC Committee Secretary Chen Yong and Zhuhai Mayor Huang Zhihao went to the scene to direct the rescue and set up a working group led by municipal leaders to carry out rescue, investigation and follow-up work. Zhuhai Sports Center issued a notice at around 21:00 on the day of the incident, announcing that it would be closed immediately.
Guangdong Provincial Governor Wang Weizhong visited Zhuhai People's Hospital on November 13 to visit and comfort the injured in the case and listened to a report on the treatment of the injured in the hospital.
On November 14, the Standing Committee of the Zhuhai CPC Committee observed a moment of silence for the people who were unfortunately killed in the incident. [30] On the same day, Huang Kunming went to the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai and the Zhuhai Air Show Command Center to supervise the investigation of the case, visit the injured and medical staff, and inspect the stability maintenance work. It is said that "with a high sense of political responsibility, we should do a good job in treating the wounded, comforting the aftermath, and investigating the case."
The Zhuhai Air Show is about to open in Zhuhai, where the incident occurred. Therefore, the search and dissemination of information about the incident are strictly censored in mainland China. Bloomberg believes that this also gives the Beijing authorities enough time to prepare for the response. Dr. Luqiu Luwei, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the information control method in this incident is similar to other major casualties in mainland China. The authorities will try to censor it to control the narrative, "making the police statement the only official explanation, and no longer allowing anyone to question or discuss it." Part of the reason is to reduce panic and copycat effect (English: copycat effect).
In the early days after the incident, related topics and videos related to the car-running incident were banned by multiple social platforms including Sina Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and some official media forwarded the local police's police report and deleted it. In the second version of the police report released by the Zhuhai Public Security Bureau on the 12th, the third paragraph that originally described the past personal dispute and judicial case of the parties was deleted.
On November 12, BBC news reporter McDevitt was under surveillance and questioned by security personnel at the scene while reporting from the scene. However, an unidentified man who claimed to be a "Chinese citizen" questioned whether he was qualified to interview and pushed him. The BBC pointed out that when sensitive incidents occur in China, local officials usually organize people to play the role of angry local people to interfere with foreign journalists' reporting. [40] According to the BBC, many mainland Chinese media received explicit bans not to report on the incident, and the authorities adopted a strict defense attitude towards foreign media. Japanese TBS TV reporter Murotani Yota said that after the incident, he was surrounded by unidentified people at the scene when he came to the scene for an interview. He was then taken away by the police for questioning and forced to delete all the interview materials. In addition, Japanese TV reporter Watanabe Yoshiyo was also told by a man who claimed to be a government employee that he was not allowed to film when he went to the scene to report. When Watanabe asked the reason, the other party said that the scene was "undergoing work" and it was inconvenient to disclose details.
On November 14, the Zhuhai Funeral Home, which was responsible for receiving the bodies of the deceased, had tight security. There were many police officers and police cars stationed at the door. People entering and leaving had to be checked, and only the relatives and friends of the deceased were allowed to enter. A funeral home staff member revealed that some of the deceased had been forcibly cremated; some relatives of the deceased said that due to the large number of injured people, the scene in the hospital was chaotic, and some injured had to wait for two to three hours before receiving treatment; other relatives said that the hospital did not allow them to see the injured or arrange for them to be sent to the hospital; after some injured people were confirmed dead, their families directly accused the hospital of not allowing them to see their family members for the last time.
Some foreign media such as NHK, Radio Free Asia, Central News Agency, Bloomberg, and Reuters pointed out that in recent years, the number of indiscriminate injuries involving citizens at home and abroad in mainland China has increased significantly, and they believe that this is related to the economic downturn and increased social pressure. Shi Zonghan, a Chinese politics expert at the University of California, San Diego, commented that when domestic demand is weak and the real estate bubble bursts, the wealth of most families will shrink, which will inevitably lead to a large number of social conflicts. Song Wendi, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said that China's economic downturn will inevitably weaken the legitimacy of the country's political system, because its legitimacy is based on the promise of achieving economic growth. Liu Hanzhang, a professor at Pitzer College, said that China's recent series of attacks reflect the deterioration of its social and macroeconomic conditions. Although these incidents are sporadic, their increasing frequency shows that more and more people in China are experiencing unprecedented difficulties and despair. She also pointed out that violent incidents are a "thorny challenge" for China to cope with the economic slowdown. China usually responds by strengthening public security and surveillance systems. However, since the government is already facing "unprecedented financial difficulties", such an approach will only increase the pressure on public finances.
Some comments also believe that a series of indiscriminate attacks in mainland China highlight the limitations of large-scale surveillance systems. Suzanne Scoggins, an associate professor of political science at Clark University, commented that the recent attacks show that there is no all-seeing and all-knowing police state in the world. Minxin Pei, a Chinese-American political scientist, believes that large-scale surveillance systems are very effective in monitoring known threats, but not in dealing with unknown or unidentified threats. The perpetrator of the Zhuhai car-ramming incident may not have been considered a threat by the police before the crime.
Tang Renwu, dean of the Institute of Government Management at Beijing Normal University, said in an exclusive interview with Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao that the driver who hit people "clearly vented his dissatisfaction with society" and was a typical case of failure to resolve conflicts in a timely manner in the process of governing society. Tang also said that the incident reflected the security omissions of the stadium and the lack of public vigilance. The Zhuhai police focused their energy and attention on maintaining public order on the newly unveiled Zhuhai Air Show, and they also need to bear the responsibility for negligence. Xu Jilin, Zijiang Distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the History Department of East China Normal University, believes that the entire Chinese society has been too tense in the past few years, and it needs to ease this tense nerve through policy and environmental improvements; he also believes that society needs to provide appropriate safety valves to allow these social hostility to have a legal space to vent. If it is always not allowed to vent, it may degenerate into a vicious outbreak.
Radio Free Asia reported that the Zhuhai Sports Center where the incident occurred is near the Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court and the government staff housing complex. Some netizens believed that the suspect's target was retired people within the system who were participating in walking at the sports center.
This incident is one of the most serious attacks in mainland China since a series of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang in 2014; it is also another car-running incident in Zhuhai before and after the Zhuhai Air Show since the mud truck crash in 2008.
The location involved, "Zhuhai National Fitness Plaza", is an open public space of Zhuhai Sports Center, the largest sports venue in Zhuhai. It is located in Meihua Street, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City (also known as "New Xiangzhou"), and is open to citizens for activities during normal times. The square is about the size of two football fields, with walking trails, athletic fields, and football fields. In the evening, many residents take walks and gather to dance in the square. Stone piers and fences are set up around to prevent vehicles from entering.
According to multiple videos on social platforms, at around 19:48 on November 11, 2024, a small off-road vehicle with a local "Yue C" license plate rushed into the pedestrian path of the National Fitness Square of Zhuhai Sports Center. Witnesses said that after the vehicle destroyed the railings, it indiscriminately circled the sports center and hit the walking crowd. Many people were knocked to the ground or sat on the side of the road waiting for rescue because they could not escape in time. The vehicle fled the scene along the same route after hitting many passers-by.
Some of the people who fell to the ground at the scene of the incident wore the uniform sportswear of the local non-governmental organization "Beautiful Zhuhai Hiking Team" and held a red flag with the name of the non-governmental organization. A survivor said that there were six to seven hiking teams at the scene, each with 40 to 50 people, aged between 40 and 70. Some of the team members were seriously injured or even died on the spot after being hit. The rescue took about an hour. Fortunately, the incident did not happen on a weekend, otherwise the casualties would be more serious. A family member of the deceased said that her husband and some people were arranged to the last row of the team because they were not wearing hiking team uniforms, and became the most seriously hit group. An eyewitness said that the music played by the hiking teams was loud at the time of the incident, which covered the sound of the collision and shouting, leaving the crowd no time to dodge.
Xu Chengchun, a Singaporean architect who was responsible for designing the National Fitness Center, said in an interview afterwards: "Vehicles are not allowed to enter the square, and stone piers and fences are set up around it. The suspect may have driven all the way into the square area from the other side of the sports center."
On the evening of the day when the incident occurred, the Zhuhai Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice confirming the incident and preliminarily introducing the incident. On the evening of November 12, the Zhuhai police issued another notice disclosing details such as the time of the incident and the casualties. Zhuhai CPC Committee Secretary Chen Yong and Zhuhai Mayor Huang Zhihao went to the scene to direct the rescue and set up a working group led by municipal leaders to carry out rescue, investigation and follow-up work. Zhuhai Sports Center issued a notice at around 21:00 on the day of the incident, announcing that it would be closed immediately.
Guangdong Provincial Governor Wang Weizhong visited Zhuhai People's Hospital on November 13 to visit and comfort the injured in the case and listened to a report on the treatment of the injured in the hospital.
On November 14, the Standing Committee of the Zhuhai CPC Committee observed a moment of silence for the people who were unfortunately killed in the incident. [30] On the same day, Huang Kunming went to the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai and the Zhuhai Air Show Command Center to supervise the investigation of the case, visit the injured and medical staff, and inspect the stability maintenance work. It is said that "with a high sense of political responsibility, we should do a good job in treating the wounded, comforting the aftermath, and investigating the case."
The Zhuhai Air Show is about to open in Zhuhai, where the incident occurred. Therefore, the search and dissemination of information about the incident are strictly censored in mainland China. Bloomberg believes that this also gives the Beijing authorities enough time to prepare for the response. Dr. Luqiu Luwei, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said that the information control method in this incident is similar to other major casualties in mainland China. The authorities will try to censor it to control the narrative, "making the police statement the only official explanation, and no longer allowing anyone to question or discuss it." Part of the reason is to reduce panic and copycat effect (English: copycat effect).
In the early days after the incident, related topics and videos related to the car-running incident were banned by multiple social platforms including Sina Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and some official media forwarded the local police's police report and deleted it. In the second version of the police report released by the Zhuhai Public Security Bureau on the 12th, the third paragraph that originally described the past personal dispute and judicial case of the parties was deleted.
On November 12, BBC news reporter McDevitt was under surveillance and questioned by security personnel at the scene while reporting from the scene. However, an unidentified man who claimed to be a "Chinese citizen" questioned whether he was qualified to interview and pushed him. The BBC pointed out that when sensitive incidents occur in China, local officials usually organize people to play the role of angry local people to interfere with foreign journalists' reporting. [40] According to the BBC, many mainland Chinese media received explicit bans not to report on the incident, and the authorities adopted a strict defense attitude towards foreign media. Japanese TBS TV reporter Murotani Yota said that after the incident, he was surrounded by unidentified people at the scene when he came to the scene for an interview. He was then taken away by the police for questioning and forced to delete all the interview materials. In addition, Japanese TV reporter Watanabe Yoshiyo was also told by a man who claimed to be a government employee that he was not allowed to film when he went to the scene to report. When Watanabe asked the reason, the other party said that the scene was "undergoing work" and it was inconvenient to disclose details.
On November 14, the Zhuhai Funeral Home, which was responsible for receiving the bodies of the deceased, had tight security. There were many police officers and police cars stationed at the door. People entering and leaving had to be checked, and only the relatives and friends of the deceased were allowed to enter. A funeral home staff member revealed that some of the deceased had been forcibly cremated; some relatives of the deceased said that due to the large number of injured people, the scene in the hospital was chaotic, and some injured had to wait for two to three hours before receiving treatment; other relatives said that the hospital did not allow them to see the injured or arrange for them to be sent to the hospital; after some injured people were confirmed dead, their families directly accused the hospital of not allowing them to see their family members for the last time.
Some foreign media such as NHK, Radio Free Asia, Central News Agency, Bloomberg, and Reuters pointed out that in recent years, the number of indiscriminate injuries involving citizens at home and abroad in mainland China has increased significantly, and they believe that this is related to the economic downturn and increased social pressure. Shi Zonghan, a Chinese politics expert at the University of California, San Diego, commented that when domestic demand is weak and the real estate bubble bursts, the wealth of most families will shrink, which will inevitably lead to a large number of social conflicts. Song Wendi, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said that China's economic downturn will inevitably weaken the legitimacy of the country's political system, because its legitimacy is based on the promise of achieving economic growth. Liu Hanzhang, a professor at Pitzer College, said that China's recent series of attacks reflect the deterioration of its social and macroeconomic conditions. Although these incidents are sporadic, their increasing frequency shows that more and more people in China are experiencing unprecedented difficulties and despair. She also pointed out that violent incidents are a "thorny challenge" for China to cope with the economic slowdown. China usually responds by strengthening public security and surveillance systems. However, since the government is already facing "unprecedented financial difficulties", such an approach will only increase the pressure on public finances.
Some comments also believe that a series of indiscriminate attacks in mainland China highlight the limitations of large-scale surveillance systems. Suzanne Scoggins, an associate professor of political science at Clark University, commented that the recent attacks show that there is no all-seeing and all-knowing police state in the world. Minxin Pei, a Chinese-American political scientist, believes that large-scale surveillance systems are very effective in monitoring known threats, but not in dealing with unknown or unidentified threats. The perpetrator of the Zhuhai car-ramming incident may not have been considered a threat by the police before the crime.
Tang Renwu, dean of the Institute of Government Management at Beijing Normal University, said in an exclusive interview with Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao that the driver who hit people "clearly vented his dissatisfaction with society" and was a typical case of failure to resolve conflicts in a timely manner in the process of governing society. Tang also said that the incident reflected the security omissions of the stadium and the lack of public vigilance. The Zhuhai police focused their energy and attention on maintaining public order on the newly unveiled Zhuhai Air Show, and they also need to bear the responsibility for negligence. Xu Jilin, Zijiang Distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of the History Department of East China Normal University, believes that the entire Chinese society has been too tense in the past few years, and it needs to ease this tense nerve through policy and environmental improvements; he also believes that society needs to provide appropriate safety valves to allow these social hostility to have a legal space to vent. If it is always not allowed to vent, it may degenerate into a vicious outbreak.
Radio Free Asia reported that the Zhuhai Sports Center where the incident occurred is near the Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court and the government staff housing complex. Some netizens believed that the suspect's target was retired people within the system who were participating in walking at the sports center.
有网民认为疑犯目标是参与体育中心健步的体制内退休人士。