Why some experts say China urgently needs a crisis system to stop ‘lone wolf’ killings

After recent deadly attacks, country’s public security system needs ‘clear legal bases’ to identify high-risk individuals, experts say

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A man lights a candle outside a fitness plaza in Zhuhai on November 12 where several people died after a vehicle was intentionally rammed into them. Experts say high-risk people are not getting the help they need because of China’s inadequate mental health care strategy. Photo: AP

Published: 6:00pm, 27 Nov 2024

China needs a crisis intervention system to identify high-risk individuals to help prevent the kinds of “lone wolf” attacks that have left more than 40 people dead this month, according to two legal experts.

“We need to put more effort into mental health crisis intervention and conflict resolution, and urgently establish a systematic prevention mechanism,” the experts said in an article published on Chinese news site Guancha.cn on Monday.

The authors – Gao Yandong, deputy dean of the Institute of Digital Rule of Law at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, and research assistant Liu Yicen – cited two deadly attacks this month as examples of how China’s public security system needed to provide “clear legal bases and operational norms” for “identifying high-risk individuals”.

The first case involved a vehicle ramming in the southern city of Zhuhai in which 35 people died and the second was a stabbing in the eastern province of Jiangsu that killed eight.

Authorities said the suspect in the Zhuhai attack was upset about a divorce ruling, while the 21-year-old Jiangsu stabbing suspect was a university student who had been denied his graduation certificate after failing exams and was also angry about the low pay he received as a factory intern.

In both cases, the suspects should have received psychological help, Gao and Liu said in the article.

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