4 American university lecturers injured in knife attack in China

HONG KONG — Four American teachers from a small college in Iowa were injured in a knife attack during a teaching trip to China, their school and U.S. authorities said.

The four teachers at Cornell College, a private liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, were injured in a “serious incident” during a day visit to a public park, the college’s president, Jonathan Brand, confirmed in a statement.

During the attack in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin, they were accompanied by a faculty member from the school’s Chinese partner institution, Beihua University.

Brand said the school has been in contact with all four and has helped them.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said U.S. authorities were aware of the reports and were monitoring the situation, but declined to comment further.

As of Tuesday noon local time, the Chinese authorities had not yet commented on the incident.

Iowa State Rep. Adam Zabner confirmed that his brother, David Zabner, was among the victims. He said his brother had stab wounds to his arm and was still in the hospital, but was doing well and in good spirits.

David Zabner, a doctoral student at Tufts University who is a graduate of Cornell College and previously taught there, had participated in the exchange program before and returned this year, Adam Zabner said.

Details about the condition of the other victims, whose identities have not yet been made public, are unclear. It is also unclear whether the teachers were targeted or randomly attacked.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said on X that she was in contact with Iowa’s federal delegation and the State Department in response to “this horrific attack.”

Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said on X She and her team are in contact with Cornell College and the State Department and are “praying for a speedy recovery for everyone.”

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, whose district includes Mount Vernon, said in a statement that she was trying to contact the U.S. Embassy to ensure that the victims could leave China as soon as possible after receiving treatment for their injuries.

The attack came as the U.S. and China, the world’s two largest economies, promote people-to-people exchanges to improve overall bilateral relations. U.S. authorities are considering easing the Level 3 travel advisory for mainland China, the second-highest level of alert, in part out of concern that it could hamper exchanges.

During a visit to the United States last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing was ready to invite 50,000 young Americans to China over the next five years as part of exchange and study programs.

The number of Americans studying in China has declined sharply over the past decade, especially during the country’s three-year pandemic isolation. According to U.S. data, nearly 300,000 Chinese students are currently studying in the United States, while fewer than 900 Americans are studying in China.

Although China has some of the world’s strictest gun laws, knife attacks are not uncommon.

Chinese state media, which frequently reports on Chinese citizens who have been victims of violence in the United States, did not comment on the stabbing attack, even though “Jilin” was a trending topic on the social media platform Weibo on Tuesday.

Well-known Chinese commentator Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-backed nationalist tabloid Global Times, expressed hope that this was an isolated case that would have “no negative impact on personnel exchanges between China and other countries.”

“Our people are generally very friendly towards foreign tourists who show up at markets and tourist attractions,” he said in a Weibo post. “Regardless of the attacker’s motive in this incident, it is an isolated case in the larger context of Chinese society.”