Grisly teen murder case shocks China and shines a light on ‘left behind’ children

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The alleged murder of a 13-year-old boy by his classmates in rural northern China has shocked the nation, igniting heated debates about school bullying, juvenile crime and the plight of tens of millions of children raised in the absence of their migrant worker parents.

Three teenagers have been detained by police on suspicion of killing the boy at their junior high school in a village on the outskirts of Handan city in Hebei province, after his disfigured body was found buried in an abandoned greenhouse, state media reported last week.

Authorities in Handan said the boy, identified by his surname Wang, was killed on March 10, and that all suspects were taken into police custody the following day.

The crime had apparently been planned, as investigators had found the suspects started digging Wang’s shallow grave a day before he was killed, according to police.

Wang’s family and their lawyer said on social media the boy had long been bullied by the three classmates, who are all under age 14.

Their young ages, the accusations of bullying and the gruesome nature of the allegedly premeditated murder drew wide attention and outrage. Discussions about the incident have dominated Chinese social media in the days since, drawing hundreds of millions of views, with many calling for severe punishment of the perpetrators, including the death penalty.

The tragedy also put the spotlight on China’s generation of “left behind” children, living in rural areas often in the care of