To say that the People's Republic of China (PRC) has problems is to engage in one of the greatest understatements since King Charles I of Britain referred to Oliver Cromwell as "a bit of a nuisance." China is poised on the edge of a demographic cliff, in large part because of the now-rescinded one child policy. Also, because of that policy and the tendency of the Chinese people to favor boys, the PRC now has a surplus of young men with little or no prospects for marriage and family. That's not a recipe for social harmony.
Add to that China's economy, which is becoming increasingly apparent, is a house of cards. Their real estate "boom" is a sham. Their vaunted electric cars are exploding - literally, and they have parking lots full of unsellable vehicles.
China's a mess, and its murder rate is starting to reflect it. Oh, China's reported murder rate is low, lower than most of Europe, in fact. But the proof, as they say, is in the pudding - or the noodle bowl. According to the World Population Review, China's overall crime rate is a tad higher than that of the United States, despite a great deal of likely under-reporting; more on that in a moment. But it's the murder rate that we will focus on here, and what China claims doesn't appear to be what's actually happening.
First, let's look at China's general murder rate. China's official murder rates, for the last decade, have been very low. In 2014, the rate per 100,000 was around 0.73; in 2015, 0.66, and so on up until 2020, which saw a trend of 0.50. Rates for 2021 through 2024, China hasn't released all that data yet, but this does give China an official murder rate akin to Japan's.
But there's a lot of reason to be suspicious of those reported rates. For one thing, police salaries and promotions in China are often tied to case-clearance rates, leading to an incentive to under-report. It's a lot easier to close a case that was never opened, after all. Local police and civil authorities are also under enormous pressure to put a good face on Chinese society, which again, leads to under-reporting. There have been several studies done on murder rates in China that all lead to one conclusion: Massive under-reporting of homocides.
Next, and perhaps more troubling, are the recent spates of mass killings in China. A recent video by the great China chronicler and commentator "serpentza," who lived in China for 14 years and now lives in the United States, recently released a great video about China's increasing mass-murder rate.
Some high-profile cases in 2024 alone, which appear to be the start of the sudden increase, include:
November 11, 2024: A 62-year-old man drove his car into a crowd of people outside of a sports center in Zhuhai, killing 35 and injuring many more. The man was reportedly angry over a divorce settlement.
November 16, 2024: A 21-year-old former student entered the Wuxi Vocational School with a knife and started stabbing people. 8 were killed, 17 injured. The man was reportedly enraged at his own failure to pass exams and graduate.
February 10, 2024: A man attacked villagers in Zhaike Village with a knife and a gun, killing 21 villagers.
There have been others, including an attack on a kindergarten in 2023, a stabbing attack in a Shanghai shopping center, and several attacks on foreigners. Add to that the fact that, because of the Chinese government's - and by that, we can safely say, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s efforts to hide these events for propaganda purposes, it becomes apparent that things may be far worse.
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This is the sign of a society in deep trouble. China's economic troubles, astronomical unemployment among the younger cohorts, and the high cost of living in China may all contribute to this sudden spike. China, furthermore, has little or no social safety net, and worse, mental health issues are generally seen as embarrassing to not only the person suffering from a disorder but also his or her family, leading to ignoring the problem, forgoing treatment, and all the problems that can come from that. Add to that the toxic effect of several generations of young men and now, aging men, with little or no prospects of marriage and family. Despite what American liberals will say about those institutions, they are vital to a healthy society, and China, as well as much of the Muslim world, is learning this the hard way.
China, in short, is a sick society, and it's getting sicker. And, yes, right here in the USA, we have problems of our own. These mass attacks in China, as well as here, seem too often to be a "cork in the bottle" reaction, where a person or a group of people perceive they are under pressure, which increases and increases until something gives; combine that with a mental illness, and that can be explosive. On that front, we can do better than China, but it will require an increase in attention to mental illnesses, including, yes, those that manifest themselves in "transgender" claims. And, if necessary, people who are judged to be possibly dangerous can and should be institutionalized.
With all of Communist China's woes, it may not be a tenable nation in another generation or two. The United States can still turn things around.
