Reports of fatal shootings are rare in China, where the CCP generally bans civilian gun ownership and tightly controls information deemed harmful to its image.
At least one person has died in what eyewitnesses described as a shooting incident outside a restaurant in China’s central Wuhan city.
Two other individuals were injured outside the restaurant located on Chongren Road, Qiaokou district—an area with many food stalls and late-night barbecue restaurants that offer outdoor seating—at 9:37 p.m. local time on May 18, according to a police
statement released on May 19.
The local authorities characterized the incident as a “deliberate injury” stemming from a dispute, and that the suspect was arrested, but didn’t disclose the type of weapon used in the attack.
Posts circulating on domestic social media from May 18 referred to the incident as a shooting. Some users shared images and videos showing a man slumped in a chair with blood visible on his face and T-shirt, while an individual was seen lying on the ground.
Three local residents also described it as a shooting when speaking to the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times before the official death toll was released, with one citing a friend who witnessed the scene firsthand. They requested anonymity for fear of retribution by authorities.
One of the residents said the deceased victim operated an arcade that featured gambling-related games.
The other said the shooting involved a lone gunman, who arrived on a bicycle.
The Epoch Times couldn’t independently verify their claims.
China has some of the strictest firearm regulations in the world, generally banning civilian gun ownership except for people in specific professions, such as hunters, who are allowed to use firearms in designated areas. The authorities frequently conduct campaigns to confiscate weapons. In a spate of random
violent crimes last year,
knives have been used as a common weapon in many incidents.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) closely monitors public discussion in the wake of major tragedies, swiftly removing eyewitness accounts from social media platforms to control the narrative. Beijing often touts the low official figures for gun-related crimes, using them to draw comparisons with the high
homicide rates in the United States as a way to deflect criticisms over its human rights abuses.
As of May 19, videos and images related to the Wuhan incident were still being
circulated on overseas social media platforms such as X, but many had been taken down behind China’s internet censorship system, dubbed the Great Firewall.
Hashtags such as “Wuhan shooting” were censored on Weibo, China’s version of X, while searches for other related keywords, including “Wuhan Qiaokou District,” primarily returned official statements.
