4 US college instructors teaching at Chinese university attacked at a public park

BEIJING (AP) — Four instructors from Iowa’s Cornell College teaching at Beihua University in northeastern China were attacked in a public park, reportedly with a knife, officials at the U.S. school and the State Department said.

There was no immediate comment from Chinese authorities about Monday’s reports.

Cornell College President Jonathan Brand said in a statement that the instructors were attacked while at the park with a faculty member from Beihua, which is in an outlying part of the industrial city of Jilin.

The State Department said in a statement it was aware of reports of a stabbing and was monitoring the situation.

Details on the extent of the instructors’ injuries and whether the attack was targeted or random were unclear Monday. Cornell spokesperson Jen Visser said in an email that the college was still gathering information on what happened.

News of the incident was suppressed in China, where the government maintains control on information about anything considered sensitive. News media outlets had not reported it. Some social media accounts posted foreign media reports about the attack, but a hashtag about it was blocked on a popular portal.

The attack happened as both Beijing and Washington are seeking to maintain people-to-people exchanges to help bolster relations amid tensions over trade and such international issues as Taiwan, the South China Sea and the war in Ukraine.

Visser, the Cornell spokesperson, said the private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa, partners with Beihua University. A college news release from 2018, when the program started, says Beihua provides funding for Cornell professors to travel to China to teach a portion of courses in computer science, mathematics and physics over a two-week