China has executed a man who fatally stabbed a 10-year-old Japanese boy in the southeastern Chinese city of Shenzhen in September last year, the BBC reports. Zhong Changchun was sentenced to death in January for the attack as the boy was walking to school, BTA reports.
The incident has caused shock and diplomatic tensions between the two countries, being seen as a xenophobic attack. "The Japanese government considers the killing of an innocent child an unforgivable crime and welcomes the execution", the Japanese embassy said.
Japan has called on China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens in the country, and the incident has made many Japanese living in China feel threatened. Some Japanese companies such as Toyota have taken precautions, while Panasonic has offered its employees free flights to Japan.
The incident has heightened nationalist sentiment in China, and the killing came on a sensitive date: September 18, the anniversary of Japan's occupation of Manchuria in the early 1930s. Beijing has long demanded an apology from Japan for military actions during that period.
The killing is part of a wider series of attacks on foreigners in China, including an attack on American teachers and an attack on a Japanese mother and child, both of which resulted in the death of the attacker.