The Chinese media love to highlight stories that illustrate how violent U.S. society is. Latest case in point: The Amish school shootings in Pennsylvania are all over the newspapers here.
But get this: There was a school shooting in China, and it’s nowhere to be seen in the press. To find it, you have to go here, a website blocked in the Middle Kingdom.
Turns out that two senior Tibetan college officials died in a shooting incident in late September at the Hezuo teacher training college in China’s remote Gansu province.
The head of the college shot the Communist Party chief at the school, then turned the gun on himself. The dispute may have been over missing funds, according to the Radio Free Asia report.
There’s other news involving shooting and Tibetans. The London-based Free Tibet Campaign says a Western climber near the border with Nepal saw army troops fire on defenseless Tibetan refugees crossing near the Nangpa La Pass.
Check out www.mounteverest.net for more info or go to www.freetibet.org
I would have thought that the frequency of school shootings in the US show that it is a dangerous place. People definitely shouldn't go around thinking China is a safe place - I witnessed a vicious brawl yesterday, but the incident you mentioned seems a little less random then the various school shooting incidents that have occured in the US. I think that it's scary that gunmen in the US often go to school and shoot random people. At least the alleged shooting in Tibet had a motive.
Posted by: Xiao Zhu | October 04, 2006 at 12:50 AM
So what? China is not a democracy, and USA is a really violent place. point.
Posted by: so | October 05, 2006 at 12:00 AM
I have never heard of any school shooting here in China. What you said sounds really shocking...I couldn't believe things like that could actually happen here. Luckily those are rare. But I still feel the States is kinda crazy. People hold guns killing their schoolmates or teachers or whoever on the spot there.
About the shooting in Tibet. Gosh. I hope that wasn't true. Although I couldn't visit the freetibet.org to check it out,I guess there must be some violence going on there. But,see, they never make the news so it's only natural that people here don't know about them. Or, maybe I should say,the vast majority of people don't really care about what's going on there,let alone some place near the border with Nepal.
However,it's really interesting and refreshing to read your posts.I get to know about another side of China.
Posted by: pekingkid | October 05, 2006 at 04:00 PM