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.

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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.