Chinese woman dies shielding Japanese mother and child from knife attack

Hu Youping, a school bus attendant in Suzhou, China, died after attempting to shield a Japanese mother and her child from a knife attack at a bus stop outside a Japanese school at around 4 p.m. on Monday. She sustained severe injuries and received treatment at a hospital before her death. The 52-year-old male assailant, surnamed Zhou, was arrested at the scene. The mother and child suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The local government honored Hu as a “Righteous and Courageous Role Model,” and the Japanese embassy in China lowered its flag to half-mast in her memory. “We believe [Ms Hu’s] courage and kindness also represent that of the Chinese people. We pay tribute to her righteous deeds. May she rest in peace,” the embassy wrote on Weibo.
On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning expressed “regret” over the attack, stating that China will take effective measures to protect foreigners in the country, just as it protects its own citizens. This incident follows a recent stabbing that injured four U.S. college instructors in China’s Jilin province on June 10. China has seen a series of knife attacks over the past year, including deadly incidents at a primary school in Jiangxi, a hospital in Yunnan and a kindergarten in Guangdong.

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