The murder of a 23-year-old female college student in Ningbo has been a big topic in online discussions on Chinese social media this week.
The incident took place on the evening of June 14 in the Yinzhou district of Ningbo, when the young woman was reportedly fatally stabbed in the woods near Shiji Avenue.
Local authorities issued a statement on June 18, saying they had detained the male suspect, a non-Chinese foreign national. The statement did not give details on which country the suspect comes from.
The police statement issued online on June 18.
Global Times reported that the suspect had confessed to the crime, stating he had murdered the woman over “a relationship dispute.”
Even though the official report on the case was issued earlier this month, the case keeps attracting attention online. The fact that the suspect is a foreigner plays a major part in the online posts on the topic.
The case is now referred to as the “June 14 Foreign-Related Criminal Case” (“6·14涉外刑事案件”).
Global Times editor Hu Xijin condemned the murder in a Weibo post, in which he also argued that public opinion should avoid focusing on the nationality and race of the suspect.
Nevertheless, speculation on the suspect keeps circulating on social media, where people claim the suspect allegedly is an African American male teacher at the Ningbo Institute of Engineering – the same school where the victim was a student. The case has sparked a wave of anti-foreigner and racist comments on Weibo.
Any Weibo hashtags relating to online speculation have been taken offline, which only seems to add fuel to ongoing speculations. Many commenters are calling on Chinese official newspapers to report about the case, and complain that any keywords relating to the news are being censored from Weibo’s ‘hot search lists.’
“How can a celebrity break-up be in the hotlists, yet this case is kept out?”, one person wondered.
“The official [media] needs to speak up, the people want to see a fair trial!”, another Weibo user wrote.
If more news comes out about this case this article will be updated.
By Manya Koetse (@manyapan)
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