Tim Cheung (@TimCheung)

"A 10-year-old #student was fatally stabbed near a #Japanese #school in southern #China on #Wednesday, according to the Japanese and #Chinese foreign ministries, in what appeared to be the latest in a spate of knife attacks on foreigners in the country. A 44-year-old man, surnamed Zhong, was in custody, according to a statement from the police in #Shenzhen, the city where the attack occurred. The student was taken to a hospital, but died early Thursday of injuries sustained in the attack, the Japanese Embassy in China said...A string of recent attacks has fueled fears that xenophobia and nationalism in China — which have been on the rise for years, often fanned by the government — are spilling over into violence. In June, four American teachers were stabbed in Jilin, a northern city; later that month, a Japanese woman and her child were attacked with a knife in Suzhou, a city in the east...Japan’s consul general in #Guangzhou, Yoshiko Kijima, who oversees a region that includes Shenzhen, told reporters on Thursday that she had met with a Chinese official and requested that the 'truth of the incident be revealed and explained', referring to the assailant’s motive. China’s ruling #Communist Party has often encouraged #nationalist emotions as a way of rallying support for its rule. That is especially true when it comes to Japan. Imperial Japan’s invasion of China in the 1930s, which continued through the end of the #SecondWorldWar, has shadowed the countries’ relationship ever since. And the stabbing Wednesday occurred on an especially sensitive date: The Communist Party regards Sept. 18, 1931, as the beginning of the invasion. On that date, Japanese soldiers caused an explosion on a Japanese-owned railway in China, which Japan blamed on Chinese nationalists and used as a pretense for the invasion. Schoolchildren are taught to observe moments of silence on Sept. 18 every year. Trending social-media hashtags on Wednesday included 'Every Chinese must never forget #Sept18'. Japan’s foreign minister, Yoko Kamikawa, told reporters on Thursday that the Japanese government had several days earlier requested that the Chinese authorities take 'all possible measures' to protect Japanese schools on the anniversary. 'It is very unfortunate that this incident occurred in such a situation', she said. Even on other days, anti-Japanese rhetoric is common on Chinese social media, despite the platforms’ promise to crack down. Self-described patriots post videos of Japanese schools, asking why Japanese people are allowed to run educational facilities in China, or suggesting that the students inside are being trained as spies. Some videos have featured the Shenzhen Japanese School. After the June attack, and again after the one on Wednesday, some commenters praised the assailant or suggested that Japan had staged the attack to win sympathy. https://www.facebook.com/ChinaCreepingAuthoritarianism/posts/pfbid0FG9v24C9XgesLZvQwacZFYBWo46ar1iLc5Yhe2fehNUr7X85Axsm6772GEdwqEwEl