Chinese Media Ignores News of Gruesome Mass Slaying That Killed 19 People

October 3, 2016

A man in Yunnan, China has just allegedly committed one of the bloodiest mass slayings in recent years in the country, yet Chinese media appear to be not interested in covering it for some reason.

Local authorities in Yunnan Province have confirmed that on Friday, a man confessed to killing 19 people, including his parents, a 3-year-old child and other neighbors in Yema Village in Huize County.

In the statement released by the provincial public security department, 27-year-old Yang Qingpei, was said to have allegedly murdered his parents after an argument escalated while he was asking them for money on Thursday.

Yang then continued on with the killing spree in fears of getting found out, according to Xinhua. He proceeded to kill 17 neighbors, 11 men and eight women, among which four were teenagers, then escaped to the provincial capital of Kunming. An investigation revealed his involvement and he was arrested the next day in Kunming.

While the gruesome nature of the crime might have shocked the nation and the world had the murders happened elsewhere, the news has not been too widespread within the country.

Observers have noted how the Chinese censors have been taking down posts about the killings on social media that discussed the issue further from the Xinhua report.

Information on any possible motive or which weapon Yang might have used has not been made public. No details on how the killings were carried out have been released as of press time and the Ministry of Public Security is reportedly investigating the matter further.

Local papers on the other hand, supplied more details to the story, according to the New York Times.

The Chengdu Economic Daily reported that the suspect had collected gambling debts while working in Kunming, citing a friend of Yang’s The report has been pulled out from the website.

The official news portal in Kunming covered a variety of topics on the day the news of the killings broke out, except for the mass slayings. Among the topics featured on that day included stories about the local real estate market industry, the train crash in Hoboken, N.J., and the override of President Obama’s veto of the Sept. 11 victims’ bill.

“Nineteen people died, and CCTV doesn’t have a report on it,” one Weibo user was quoted as saying. “Speechless. Chinese news is villainous.”

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