It was November 3, 2016, when the 24-year-old Chinese student Jiang Ge (江歌) was fatally stabbed outside her apartment in Tokyo.
Five days later, the 25-year-old Chinese graduate student Chen Shifeng (陈世峰) was charged with Jiang’s murder.
Outside Jiang’s former Tokyo apartment, in the Nakano neighborhood.
Chen, who was captured by surveillance cameras at the time of the murder, was the ex-boyfriend of Jiang’s close friend Liu Xin (刘鑫), a fellow exchange student from Qingdao. Liu had become Jiang’s roommate since she broke up with Chen two months before the fatal stabbing.
According to media reports, Chen Shifeng initially headed to Jiang’s apartment to look for his ex-girlfriend Liu Xin that afternoon. After a confrontation, Chen and the two young women left the apartment. When Liu and Jiang arrived back later that night, it was Liu who went inside first.
Exchange students Liu (left) and Jiang (right).
Jiang, who was still outside the apartment, screamed as she was attacked. Liu claimed she heard her friend’s cries and tried to open the door to help her, but found the door blocked. She then called the police.
Demanding the Death Penalty Through an Online Petition
The case is now again making headlines and has become a recurring daily trending topic on Weibo. Updates on the case easily receive 50,000 comments per article, with every day over the past week bringing new insights into the case.
One of the reasons the case is receiving heightened attention is that the murder suspect Chen Shifeng is scheduled to go on trial in Japan on December 11.
The victim’s mother Jiang Qiulian (@江秋莲) is currently collecting signatures on the streets of Tokyo for an online petition that calls for the death penalty for Chen, and she is speaking to media reporters on a daily basis.
The death penalty is legal in Japan, although people are rarely given that sentence. It is applied in practice only for murder, and executions are carried out by hanging. Jiang Qiulian says her only wish is for Chen to be sentenced to death to seek justice for her daughter’s death.
“Because she does not trust the justice system, Jiang’s mother has chosen to seek public support instead,” one person wrote on Weibo.
But it is not just the legal aspect of the case that has gotten netizens clicking, sharing, and commenting to every article. The moral facets underlying the case are triggering heated debates.
Liu Xin on Public Trial
Liu Xin, the friend who was inside the apartment while her friend was being murdered outside in the corridor, is under fire on social media for her behavior and reactions during and after that fatal day.
According to China Daily, mother Jiang Qiulian blames Liu for allegedly purposely locking Jiang out when she was attacked.
She also criticizes Liu for never explaining the details of Jiang’s death to the victim’s family, avoiding any contact with them, and not even sending her condolences after the murder.
The matter transformed into a ‘public drama’ when Jiang’s mother turned to Weibo in May of this year, exposing personal information of Liu and her family, and asking netizens for help in tracing her down.
As a consequence, the media is now for a large part focusing on developments outside the courtroom. The first emotional meeting between Jiang’s mother and Liu Xin, which took place in August, was recorded and widely shared on social media last Friday.
An emotional first meeting between Jiang’s mother and Liu Xin.
During the meeting, Liu Xin said Jiang was protecting her against her former boyfriend, and that she never purposely prevented Jiang from coming back into the apartment.
Liu previously told Chinese news outlet thepaper.cn that she could not contact Jiang’s family after the incident because she was under the supervision and protection of the police, and had to protect the confidentiality of the evidence, and said she did not lock the door before Jiang was attacked.
Nevertheless, netizens blame Liu for caring more about her personal matters than the life of her friend. Jiang’s mother also stated to reporters that she will not forgive her daughter’s friend.
“This is not even about whether or not Liu Xin opened the door for her friend, it is about her attitude later on,” many on Weibo say.
“Chen Shifeng deserves to die, but Liu Xin does not deserve a good life,” some commenters stated.
But some people on Weibo criticize the public backlash against Liu Xin, suggesting that social media users are blindly following the reasoning of a traumatized mother. “Jiang’s mother is a crazy dog,” they write: “And Chinese netizens are the sheep.”
By Manya Koetse
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