Around 11 a.m. on March 29, a serious mass-casualty attack struck Beijing, China, when a man drove a bulldozer back and forth through a crowded market, killing at least 13 people and injuring multiple vendors and shoppers.
The attack occurred at the Dahanji Market (大韓繼大集). Footage of the bulldozer crushing stalls and pedestrians spread rapidly on Chinese social media — then was quickly censored. Authorities have issued no official casualty figures or public statement on the incident.
According to the X account "Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher" (李老師不是你老師), which closely monitors social unrest in China, the attack appears to have been a revenge-against-society incident. The perpetrator was eventually subdued by bystanders. Hong Kong outlets Sing Tao Daily and On.cc reported that the suspect, believed to be in his 50s, had allegedly nursed long-standing grievances over a forced demolition that authorities had repeatedly failed to address.
On March 31, a 44-year-old man surnamed Wu stabbed pedestrians at random in Wuhan, injuring four people, none fatally. Wuhan municipal police issued an official notice on the incident. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
On April 4, another indiscriminate attack occurred on Taiyuan Street in the Heping District of Shenyang, Liaoning Province. A knife-wielding attacker slashed victims along approximately 100 meters of street. Unverified online reports indicate six people were killed and more than ten injured. One male victim was reportedly decapitated at the scene. The attacker subsequently died after jumping from a building. Authorities have issued no official statement on the incident.
Three serious indiscriminate attacks within a single week prompted Chinese netizens to remark that "Zhang Xianzhong incidents" (張獻忠事件) had become alarmingly frequent — even in Beijing. This article analyzes the possible causes behind China's recurring wave of such attacks, drawing on interviews with Chinese citizens to examine whether the country's enormous social pressure cooker has reached a breaking point.
2024: 19 Attacks, 63 Dead, 100+ Injured
In Chinese internet parlance, indiscriminate mass attacks are commonly referred to as "Zhang Xianzhong" (張獻忠) incidents — a reference to the notoriously brutal rebel leader of the late Ming dynasty, whose name Chinese netizens have repurposed to describe any act of random, grievance-driven mass violence motivated by revenge against society. Chinese netizens have repurposed his name to describe any act of random, grievance-driven mass violence. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
China publishes no official statistics on such incidents. However, data compiled by Wainao, a Chinese-language news magazine affiliated with Radio Free Asia, and BBC indicate that between 2016 and 2023, the annual number of such attacks ranged from approximately 3 to 10 — with the exception of 2018, when 16 were recorded. In 2024, that figure surged to 19.
Casualty figures have also escalated sharply over time: 3 killed and 28 injured in 2019; 16 killed and 40 injured in 2023; and 63 killed and 166 injured in 2024. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
These figures are likely to understate the true scale of the problem, as information on many incidents is either partially suppressed or blocked entirely by authorities.
Recent Serious Indiscriminate Attacks in China
Sep. 30, 2024 | Walmart Stabbing, Songjiang District, Shanghai
Casualties: 3 killed, 15 injured
Details: According to the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, the suspect was Lin Weihu (林衛虎), 37, who had spent years unsuccessfully pursuing unpaid wages. Driven to destitution, he sold his phone and slept on the streets while seeking redress. He purchased two knives via the Douyin (TikTok) platform and launched the attack at a Walmart supermarket on the eve of China's National Day holiday.
Nov. 11, 2024 | Vehicle Attack, Zhuhai Sports Center, Guangdong
Casualties: 35 killed, 43 injured (official figures; unverified reports suggest 38 killed, 48 injured)
Details: Fan Weiqiu (樊維秋), 62, drove a vehicle into a public fitness plaza at the Zhuhai Sports Center, making repeated circuits through the crowd. Preliminary police investigations indicated that Fan bore grievances over the property division ruling in his divorce proceedings. He had filed civil suits at both the district and municipal intermediate courts, but believed he had not received a fair outcome.
Nov. 16, 2024 | Stabbing Attack, Wuxi Craft and Art Vocational Institute, Jiangsu
Casualties: 8 killed, 17 injured
Details: Xu Jiajin (徐加金), 21, a 2024 graduate of the institute, returned to campus after failing an exam and being denied his diploma, and after expressing dissatisfaction with his internship wages. An alleged suicide note circulated online stated that he worked 16-hour days and was still owed wages by the factory, while the school withheld his diploma over the failed exam. The note reportedly concluded: "I hope my death can advance labor law." Chinese authorities tried, sentenced, and executed Xu within approximately two months.
Jan. 31, 2025 | Stabbing, Chengqiao Township, Luhe District, Nanjing
Casualties: 4 killed, 8 injured (unconfirmed by authorities)
Details: A man carried out a knife attack on the third day of the Lunar New Year. Authorities have not publicly confirmed the casualty toll or disclosed a motive.
Mar. 29, 2026 | Bulldozer Attack, Dahanji Market, Fangshan District, Beijing
Casualties: Reportedly 8 to 13 killed, approximately 12 injured (no official notification issued)
Details: A man believed to be in his 50s drove a heavy bulldozer into a densely crowded market, repeatedly ramming stalls and pedestrians along a narrow street. Sources suggest the suspect's motive may be linked to long-standing grievances over an unresolved forced demolition. Authorities have not issued any public statement on the incident.
Beyond the rising casualty counts, these attacks have intensified international scrutiny of the structural conditions in Chinese society that may be generating such extreme acts of violence.
Cornered and Lethal: What Creates a Mass Killer?
According to Reuters, as economic growth slows and employment becomes increasingly precarious, fewer people are able to share in China's long-running economic miracle — and the psychological toll of financial pressure is mounting.
A July 2024 study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, found that a widespread perception exists in Chinese society that personal failure stems from an unfair system and structural factors beyond individual control. George Magnus, a China scholar and author of Red Flags: Why Xi's China Is in Jeopardy, has argued that this perception goes a long way toward explaining the social and industrial distress reflected in the wave of indiscriminate attacks — and serves as a warning signal about the state of Chinese society. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
TheSouth China Morning Post has previously noted that the decline of the property market and persistently high youth unemployment have placed enormous stress on Chinese citizens. Over the preceding decade, China's economy relied on large-scale infrastructure investment, rapid real estate expansion, and aggressive credit growth. The generation born in the 1980s — now the backbone of Chinese society — witnessed their parents' hardships and experienced a dramatic transformation in living standards, coming to believe that each generation would be better off than the last. That expectation has been increasingly difficult to sustain.
"The Information Cocoons Is Astonishing": Chinese Citizens in the Dark
China has long prided itself on being one of the world's safest countries — a claim that grows increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of rising indiscriminate attacks. Reuters has noted that the Chinese authorities' sweeping censorship of public discussion around these incidents has paradoxically deepened public anxiety and fueled growing skepticism toward official information.
The BBC has reported that in countries with a healthy media ecosystem, individuals facing wrongful demolitions or unfair dismissals can turn to journalists for help — but in China, the media is party-controlled and that avenue is effectively closed. China's courts are also administered by and in service of the Communist Party, making the prospect of obtaining impartial justice through legal channels remote. Other channels for expressing grievances have continued to narrow or close entirely: criticizing the government online or organizing protests is swiftly silenced. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
Shannie (珊妮, a pseudonym), a 35-year-old woman from Guangdong Province, told the Storm Media in an interview that she had seen no news whatsoever about the Beijing attack while living in Guangdong. It was only after a reporter raised the subject that she tried to search for information — and found only fragments. "The Information Cocoons (信息繭房) in China is truly astonishing," she said.
Shannie has a background in journalism and generally follows current affairs and international news. Yet she had no knowledge of the recent serious Beijing attack. "Information is extremely restricted here," she said. "It is very difficult to find anything through searches. I don't know the right keywords, and even after searching at length, I can't find anything."
She reflected that "this situation would have been unimaginable ten or more years ago — the media can no longer perform its function or shine a light on the darker side of society." With social media under such tight control, she said, the public's right to know has effectively ceased to exist, let alone any space for substantive discussion. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
Downplay and Disappear: Justice Denied in China
Shannie said she was not at all surprised by the recurring indiscriminate attacks. "The cost of seeking justice in China is simply too high," she said. "The legal system is supposed to protect ordinary people's interests — but it is very difficult to actually use that tool. Filing a lawsuit alone can take years and is far too costly." She said it is common practice to "downplay and disappear (大事化小，小事化無)," with complaints routinely buried whether reported to police or filed in court. Shannie said she has encountered this firsthand.
She recounted a road dispute in which the other party threatened and then followed her. When she reported the incident to police, the first question they asked was: "Were you the one who provoked him?" After the other party stopped following her, officers advised her not to "make a big deal out of it."
To illustrate the difficulty of seeking legal redress in China, Shannie pointed to a recent dog-poisoning case in Beijing. In September 2022, a man named Zhang Zhihua (張志華) poisoned animals at the Changyiyuan residential community in Chaoyang District, killing nine of eleven affected dogs. The owner of one of the deceased dogs, named Papi, quit her job, taught herself law, and joined other affected pet owners in filing a lawsuit. After three years and two months, a Beijing court finally issued a first-instance guilty verdict on December 11, sentencing Zhang to four years in prison. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
Shannie noted that the case only received attention because it attracted public outcry. Even so, the court repeatedly delayed announcing hearing dates until the last moment — a pattern she interpreted as a deliberate effort to "let the public debate and attention die down." Yet the affected individuals simply wanted justice. "The cost of seeking redress is deliberately inflated," she said. "And not everyone can afford to quit their job and dedicate themselves to a legal fight."
From road disputes to poisoning cases, she said, the path to justice is filled with obstacles and emotional exhaustion — let alone the despair of being unable to speak out when one's livelihood or basic survival is under threat. For people with no social capital or connections, Shannie argued, when pressure and hardship offer no solution and no outlet, individuals can be pushed to acts of destruction. "When normal channels have failed, what is left? Very often, it takes a kind of breakdown — going mad — to make anyone pay attention." （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
"People in Pain Are Trembling Out There": Too Exhausted to Care About Society
"This country is a pressure cooker," said Shannie, who now works as an ordinary office employee. She described the immense workplace pressure facing her generation — many people, she said, "don't know why they are busy or why they are alive." Her own partner has recently been affected by a wave of layoffs and may soon be unemployed, leaving them spending all their energy just to survive, unable to envision a future that includes marriage and children. "Especially for women today — getting pregnant is almost a death sentence for your career." Shannie, who once hoped to start a family, has chosen not to marry or have children, citing her inability to bear the consequences of potential unemployment and the enormous financial costs involved.
She noted that the official WeChat public accounts of the Shenzhen and Guangzhou municipal health commissions have recently published frequent content focused on workplace stress — an indication, she suggested, that job-seeking and workplace pressure have become social problems that can no longer be ignored. "These official posts and discussion spaces are small release valves in the giant pressure cooker. They may relieve some tension, but they cannot address the root problems."
Shannie acknowledged the dilemma she faces: "I know that if I don't speak up for others now, no one will speak up for me when my turn comes." But she said that when everyone is under enormous pressure just to survive, it is very hard to have the capacity to care for anyone else. She said the X account "Teacher Li Is Not Your Teacher" regularly posts content censored on Weibo and documents various social injustices. "People in pain are trembling out there," she said — but she simply does not have the mental or emotional energy to process what she sees. （Related： Exclusive | Beijing Holds All the Cards. The KMT Just Doesn't Know It Yet ｜ Latest ）
Isolated and Ignored: China Responds With Surveillance
Sylvia Kwok (郭黎玉晶), a professor at City University of Hong Kong, told the BBC that counseling can help build emotional resilience, and that China needs to substantially expand mental health services — particularly for high-risk populations who have experienced trauma or have pre-existing mental health conditions.
Shannie, however, noted that the stigma surrounding counseling and mental illness remains severe in Chinese society. Disclosing a mental health condition can put one's job at risk. While major cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen have begun to pay greater attention to mental well-being and counseling access, she said, Chinese society as a whole remains largely unfriendly toward mental health issues.
According to a South China Morning Post report, following two attacks in November 2024 that together killed more than 40 people, an unverified document circulated online — believed to be a notice from a neighborhood residents' committee — calling for the identification of two categories of individuals considered at risk. The first, labeled "individuals of eight losses (八失人員)," included those who had experienced: failed investments, unemployment, personal setbacks, emotional disappointment, relationship breakdown, psychological imbalance, mental disorder, and neglect during youth.
The second category, described as "three lows, three lacks (三低三少)," referred to people at the bottom of society: those with low income, low social status, and low public prestige, combined with few social interactions, few opportunities for advancement, and few channels through which to express grievances.
As the Post noted, this type of population management approach was widely employed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Chinese government used technology to track and tightly control individual movement. Yet the psychological trauma and stress generated by such controls has never been formally acknowledged or addressed.
