His three teenage classmates have been detained on suspicion of murdering
the boy in a case that has riveted China, setting off outrage and frenzied
debate over the young age of the suspects and soul-searching about
bullying and social responsibility in the Chinese countryside.

Police in Feixiang district of Handan city identified the boy only by his
last name, Wang. In a statement Sunday they said the boy had been killed
on March 10 and that the suspects were detained the following day. A
police investigator told state broadcaster CCTV on Monday that the crime
had been premeditated, with the suspects digging out the pit twice, once
the day before and again the day of the killing.

Wang�s relatives and their attorney said in interviews with Chinese media
and in posts on social media that the boy had long been a victim of
bullying, and was forced to give money to one of his classmates before he
was killed. They said police identified the suspected killers after
reviewing the surveillance footage and questioning the classmates.

�He was beaten alive and his body was disfigured beyond recognition,�
Wang�s father wrote on Douyin, a Chinese social media platform. �I hope
the government will be fair, open and just, punish them severely, and that
the killers will pay with their lives!�

The case will be a test of a change in the law in 2021 that lowered the
age at which children could be charged with a crime from 14 to 12 years
old.

Wang�s father, aunt, and grandmother did not respond to requests for
comment. A person answering a phone number listed for their attorney�s law
firm told The Associated Press to wait for comment, saying they were
swamped with interview requests. A number for the principal of the boy�s
school rang unanswered, as did numbers for relatives of two of the
suspects.

The victim and the suspects are all under the age of 14. Media reports
said they were �left-behind� children, a phrase used to describe kids in
the countryside often cared for by grandparents because their parents work
in faraway cities.

As details of the tragedy emerged last weekend, it renewed concern over
the social and psychological welfare of such children, their exposure to
violent content online and the ability of the country�s social services to
care for them. Posts and videos from Wang�s relatives garnered millions of
views and thousands of comments.

�The attention paid to the mental health of minors in the countryside is
too little,� said one commenter on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.
�I think this sort of thing could happen again.�

Zhang Dongshuo, a defense attorney in Beijing unaffiliated with the case,
said that Wang�s death is the latest in a series of juvenile murder cases
in China that have sparked debate on how old a child should be before
being held responsible for a crime.

�Generally speaking, these kinds of cases involving minors are rare,�
Zhang said. �But recently more and more of these cases have been reported
by the media, and it�s been triggering discussion in Chinese society over
revising the age of criminal responsibility.�

In 2019, a 13-year-old boy who confessed to sexually assaulting and
murdering a 10-year-old girl avoided criminal charges because Chinese law
at the time stipulated that only those over the age of 14 could be held
criminally liable. Two years later, the the age of criminal responsibility
was lowered to 12, but the government mandated that prosecution only take
place if approved by the Supreme People�s Procuratorate, China�s highest
prosecuting authority.

Zhang added that the lack of parental guidance for �left behind� children
has been a longstanding social issue, but that the question of how they
should be raised has not been fully resolved.

�Many people think schools and the government should take responsibility
for children�s education, but that means if the relevant government
departments and schools don�t educate them effectively, then it�s highly
likely this minor is left in an educational vacuum,� he said.

State media have given Wang�s death widespread coverage, though there are
signs that Chinese authorities are keeping a close eye on public
sentiment. On Sunday, the family�s attorney, Zang Fanqing, was abruptly
cut off on a live broadcast after saying he and Wang�s father were barred
from seeing the boy�s body. The next day, Zang said on social media that
they were allowed to see the body.

A public statement from police Sunday asked the public not to spread
rumors to protect the victim�s privacy and avoid further harm to the boy�s
family.

His family has signaled they intend to pursue criminal charges. In a video
Wang�s father posted Monday, he said the sight of his son�s body was
�crueler than I imagined.�

�Your father isn�t scared, he is only upset and furious,� Wang�s father
wrote, addressing his son. �Wait for your father to avenge you!�

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teens-over-gruesome-killing-of-13-year-old-classmate-sparks-debate-in-
china/