Chinese police have formally arrested and are expected to prosecute a Chinese man in his 40s on suspicion of murder in the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy in September, diplomatic sources said Saturday.
The Japanese government has requested China share details of its investigation into the killing of the 10-year-old pupil in Shenzhen, southern China, but Chinese authorities have yet to disclose the motive or any background to the case.
File photo taken in China’s Shenzhen on Sept. 19, 2024, shows the location where a pupil of a Japanese school was stabbed by a man the previous day. (Kyodo)
The boy, whose father is Japanese and mother is Chinese, was stabbed on his way to school on Sept. 18. He received treatment at a hospital but succumbed to his injuries early the next morning. A male suspect was apprehended near the school shortly after the incident.
Speculation has been rife that the stabbing was linked to the 93rd anniversary of a Japanese bombing of a railroad track near Shenyang, the start of the Manchurian Incident that led to Japan’s invasion of northeastern China. However, Chinese authorities have characterized the case as an isolated incident.
Last month, a senior official from China’s Foreign Ministry said in a meeting with Keiichi Iwamoto, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Consular Affairs Bureau, that an explanation for the case will be provided based on progress in judicial procedures.
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