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Chinese court sentences man to death over knife attack at Japanese school bus stop

According to a Japanese government official, a Chinese man who killed a Chinese bus attendant who was attempting to defend a Japanese mother and her child from a knife attack near Shanghai last June and injured the mother and child has been sentenced to death.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday that Zhou Jiasheng, 52, stabbed the three because he was indebted and did not want to live any longer, according to a court in the city of Suzhou.

Concerns regarding heightened anti-Japanese sentiment in China were raised by the case, which was one of two stabbing attacks on Japanese children that occurred there last year. Beijing was urged by Tokyo to protect its citizens in China.

According to Hayashi, Japan was not mentioned in the court’s decision, which was not immediately available.

“We take the ruling seriously, and we believe that the crime that killed and injured innocent people, including a child, was completely unforgivable,” Hayashi stated.

He said that the court sentencing was attended by representatives of the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai.

On June 24, the stabbing happened at a Suzhou bus stop for a Japanese school. Days later, Hu Youping, a female bus attendant who attempted to halt the attack, passed away from stab wounds. There were no significant injuries to the Japanese mother or child.

In the southern city of Shenzhen, a 10-year-old Japanese student was stabbed close to his school in September and died as a result.

Other stabbing attacks involving foreigners last year were isolated incidents, the Chinese government said.

In June, a Chinese man stabbed four U.S. university instructors at a public park in Jilin in the northeast as well as a Chinese person who tried to intervene.

In May, a knife attack at a hospital in southwestern China killed two people and injured 21 others.

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