Four American university professors teaching in China were stabbed in broad daylight while visiting a public park. The Guardian reported Tuesday, citing U.S. officials.
According to a statement from Jonathan Brand, president of Cornell College in Iowa, the college's tutors were visiting the park in northeastern China's Jilin province on Monday where they were stabbed.
They were accompanied by a Beihua University faculty member, he said.
Details about the extent of the group's injuries and whether the daytime attack was targeted or random were unclear.
Iowa state representative Adam Zabner told US media that his brother, David Zabner, was part of a group visiting a temple in Beishan Park when a man attacked them with a knife.
David “was wounded in the arm during a knife attack while visiting a temple in the city of Jilin, China,” he said. Reutersand was recovering in the hospital.
On Monday, a video of people lying on the ground in a park covered in blood was circulating on X.
Chinese authorities have not issued any statements regarding the incident nor have any reports been found in Chinese media.
The State Department said in a statement that it was aware of reports of a stabbing and was monitoring the situation.
The attack occurred as both Beijing and Washington seek to maintain people-to-people exchanges to prevent bilateral relations from deteriorating.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has unveiled a plan to invite 50,000 young Americans to China over the next five years, but Chinese diplomats say a travel warning from the US State Department has deterred Americans from going there. China.
According to US data, there are fewer than 900 American exchange students studying in China compared to more than 290,000 Chinese students in the United States.
