11/12/24 - Zhuhai Vehicular Massacre Edition

Well, my fingers are all healed up, but a major event has gone down that I feel I should probably talk about? Just today, a man drove his car into crowds of people speed-walking for exercise at a Guangdong Zhuhai Stadium, killing 35 and injuring 43. It’s the biggest incident in terms of indiscriminate attacks this year, and this year has had a lot of indiscriminate attacks on the public. This is the only incident that Xi Jinping himself has spoken about (he didn’t say anything substantial except political circle-talking), probably because of the number of casualties.

I should note here that every time you see a major incident in China, whether it’s a truck driving into a train or wildfires or terroristic attacks like these, there’s a good chance there is precisely 35 people dead. This is an interesting number because there has been claims for years that an unusual number of incidents in China, from wild fires to floods to industrial explosions, have precisely 35 deaths. People’s theory is that if an incident causes more than 35 deaths, it counts as a “major industrial incident”, and has to be reported to the central government (whereas lower death numbers means that the state or even city government can deal with it without telling anyone). And when an incident becomes big enough and embarrassing enough to draw the attention of the central government, important people start losing their jobs over it. I’ve read quite a few Chinese recent events commentators on youtube doubting these numbers based on the video of the incident (which I haven’t watched myself), as well as many weibo commenters making fun of the 35 number themselves. At the very least, right now, with many victims still in the ICU, it seems fairly certain that the final death number is going to be much, much higher than 35.

The driver attempted to commit suicide once he was done, but he was stopped by the police. He’s in the hospital, being treated right now, and unable to be questioned as to his motives, but the police have already announced what they think are his motives. He is currently going through appeals court for his divorce hearing because he disagrees with how the initial hearing ruled the marital property should be split. And most of the discussion on the internet revolves around the same gender war talking points that we’ve all seen a million times. The men are saying this only happened because women are greedy and gold diggers and are pushing perfectly decent, honest men into a corner. The women are saying this only happened because men are naturally sociopathic, violent animals and use mass murder as a weapon to bend society to their will.

And I’m frankly disgusted by the whole situation, because this happens every goddamn time. Every time there is major societal news, the government immediately jumps out and makes it all about the gender conflict, so they can hide their responsibility. The profile of every single indiscriminate attacker this year has been shockingly similar—they’re all middle-aged men (40s to 60s), unemployed, unmarried/divorced, no children (or at least no custody of children), usually with a ton of debt. If the divorce had anything to do with why he chose to kill so many people, then it is at most only the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The fundamental reason that mass attacks are becoming a trend in China is because people are taking revenge on society, and they’re taking revenge on society because they see no hope for their future and they blame society for it. It’s because the economic death spiral means that every industry in China is doing pay cuts and layoffs. It’s because these people bought a house at a historically high point and are tied down by 30 years of mortgage on a house that’s already lost half of its value. It’s because these people can’t afford a child and have reached a point in their life where they’re realising that they might never be able to afford a child. It’s because there is no alternative way for them to make their voice heard.

They’re not allowed to protest. They’re not allowed to complain on the internet. Labour laws might as well not exist. There aren’t any social safety nets. It’s impossible to find a job. 900 million out of the 1.4 billion people make under 3K a month. And out of that 3K a month, they’re having to pay nearly 1K of it in taxes. Retirement is getting delayed, so you can’t collect on social security until you’re 65, but you lose your job the second you turn 35. There’s so many people crowding into the rideshare driver or takeout delivery market that you have to work 15-16 hours a day just to survive. And meanwhile, a deputy mayor can get away with embezzling over 1000 houses.

And then you turn around and try to tell me that the only reason these incidents are happening is because of women?

Since I’m soapboxing about my own personal opinions anyways, I’m just going to make it clear where I stand on China’s general gender war points.

It’s a distraction issue. Every single problem with Chinese sexism, from parents favouring boys to women being trafficked into rural villages—all of these problems isn’t a result of misogyny, but because of wider societal inadequacies. Trying to talk about sexism in China is a waste of time if you’re not willing to address the fact that at the end of the day, both genders suffer, and both genders suffer because the government is never held responsible or accountable to its people.