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.

Four American instructors from a small Iowa college were injured in a stabbing attack while on a teaching trip to China, their school and officials in both countries said.

The rare attack on foreigners in the powerful security state comes as China is trying to repair ties with the United States and revive tourism to help boost a sluggish economy after three years of isolation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese state media, which often report on Chinese nationals who are the victims of violence in the U.S., had not reported on the attack as of Tuesday afternoon local time, and discussion of it appeared to be tightly controlled on China’s heavily censored social media.

  • @khannie
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    917 days ago

    Crazy stuff. I’ve spent a decent chunk of time in China and always felt safe.

    • @Eheran
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      317 days ago

      Always safe? Considering the corruption and extremely low safety standards, extremely bad pollution or generally any environmental topic, I tend to disagree. But just speaking about crimes, I agree. It is an authoritarian state, certain crimes are lower due to the lack of civil rights. But reporting to the police etc. does not exactly make me feel safe in a different way.

      • @khannie
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        417 days ago

        Yeah I didn’t feel like I was likely to suffer any crime at any point was what I meant. I’m fairly well travelled and have definitely not felt that everywhere I’ve been.

        I found the authoritarianism quite stifling. All the cameras almost literally everywhere you look. Passport to go on high speed rail yada yada.