BEIJING: Chinese citizens expressed support on Sunday for a disabled man who set off an explosion at Beijing’s international airport, injuring himself in an apparent protest against police brutality.
Messages of support were posted online after reports said 34-year-old Ji Zhongxing was driven to the act by a years-long battle for justice after being severely beaten by police.
Wheelchair-bound Ji warned passengers in the airport before detonating the small device late on Saturday in an apparent attempt to draw attention to his case without harming others, the Beijing News reported.
A policeman who rushed to the scene was the only other person injured in the explosion, the state-run China Radio International said.
“He warned those passing by ... what a good member of the public. Who in this country is willing to stand up and say they are more righteous than him?” Zhao Xiao, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology wrote on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo site.
“By warning others to move away, he is a good person... I hope authorities will be understanding, or they will set off a vicious cycle,” lawyer Yuan Yulai wrote.
“He was not as crazed as the police who beat him in the first place,” another Sina Weibo user said.
Ji moved from the eastern province of Shandong to work as a motorcycle driver in the southern city of Dongguan, where he was severely beaten by police staff in 2005, causing him to become disabled, according to multiple reports which could not be independently verified.
He had “lost all hope with society,” following an unsuccessful battle for compensation, Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV reported.
Ji was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital where he had his left hand amputated, the broadcaster said.
Lawyers for Ji could not be reached on Sunday. Phoenix TV said at least one lawyer could not comment due to “pressure” from the local government in Dongguan.
Reports said Ji had grown frustrated at China’s “petitioning” system, which allows citizens to file complaints directly with government departments.
Petitioners whose complaints have been ignored have for decades staged protests across China, with some using violent acts to draw attention to their case.
The bombing highlights flaws in the petition system, which is “basically not working,” Willy Lam, a China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told AFP.
“People who think they are victims of massive injustice have nowhere to turn to, and sometimes resort to violent means ...to draw the attention of the public.”
Ji and family members traveled to Beijing in 2009 to petition central authorities about his case, the Beijing Evening News reported.
His family was unaware of the bombing plan, according to a statement from police in Ji’s home town of Heze quoted by the state news agency Xinhua.
“For ten years, he has been petitioning about alleged unjust treatment that resulted in his paralysis, according to a police investigation,” it added.
The police cordon at the arrivals hall has been removed and the airport is back to normal, Xinhua said.
Local governments have responded to a rise in petitions in recent years by employing networks of interceptors to catch petitioners who journey to Beijing, sometimes detaining them in illegal “black jails.” Analysts say such moves have fueled frustration.
Newly-installed President Xi Jinping has appointed a supreme court judge with some reformist credentials but has made no major reforms to the legal system since taking office in March.
An unemployed man who had been a petitioner killed 47 people last month by setting off an explosion on a bus in the coastal city of Xiamen, state media reported.
Internet users favorably contrasted Ji’s decision to warn passengers with the behavior of the petitioner behind the Xiamen attack.
“It’s a big step forward... because Ji chose to inflict the smallest amount of injury,” one Sina Weibo user wrote.
Online sympathy for China airport blast protester
Online sympathy for China airport blast protester
Nepal’s rapper-turned-politician takes early lead in key polls
- The polls are one of the most hotly contested elections in the Himalayan republic of 30 million people since the end of a civil war in 2006
Nepal’s centrist party of rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah took an early lead in the high-stakes parliamentary election on Friday, as slow counting continued after the first polls since last year’s deadly uprising.
But despite Shah’s party loyalists dancing on the streets of Katmandu in celebration — the numbers of votes counted remain too low to be confident that it will translate into concrete wins.
By Friday afternoon, 24 hours after polls closed, early trends issued by the Election Commission put Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra Party ahead.
HIGHLIGHT
Alongside Shah, key figures vying for power include Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli, four-time prime minister who was ousted by the September 2025 anti-corruption protests, and the newly elected leader of the Nepali Congress party, Gagan Thapa.
Alongside Shah, key figures vying for power include Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli, four-time prime minister who was ousted by the September 2025 anti-corruption protests, and the newly elected leader of the Nepali Congress party, Gagan Thapa.
At 5:00 p.m. (1115 GMT), RSP was leading in more than half of the 165 constituencies.
But there were only two declared results, and RSP had been confirmed only in one, the same as Nepali Congress.
Prakash Nyupane, a spokesman for the Election Commission, said that counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner” across the Himalayan nation, from snowbound high-altitude mountain regions to the hot plains bordering India.
Voters have chosen who replaces the interim government in place since the September 2025 uprising, in which at least 77 people were killed, and parliament and scores of government buildings were torched.
Youth-led protests under a loose Gen Z banner began as a demonstration against a brief social media ban, but were fed by wider grievances at corruption and a woeful economy.
Kunda Dixit, publisher of the weekly Nepali Times, told AFP that if trends did reflect final wins, the political shift was dramatic.
“This is even a bigger upset than we expected — it underscores the level of public disenchantment with the old parties for under-performance, as well as anger over the events of September,” he said.
‘Fate of the country’
The polls are one of the most hotly contested elections in the Himalayan republic of 30 million people since the end of a civil war in 2006.
All eyes are watching the results in the key head-to-head battleground constituency of Jhapa-5, a usually sleepy eastern district, where 35-year-old Shah challenged directly the veteran Oli, aged 74.
Shah, better known as Balen, snappily dressed in a black suit and sunglasses, has cast himself as a symbol of youth-driven political change.
At 5 p.m. local time, at 10 percent of the votes counted in Jhapa-5, Shah was ahead by nearly five times as many votes as Oli.
Soldiers with armored trucks manned barbed wire barricades around the counting center in Jhapa.
“I hope this result changes the fate of the country for the better,” Bhagawati Adhikari, 38, told AFP, who was among a crowd of dozens at Jhapa gathered outside the security cordon.
“The country should be peaceful and secure, youth should get opportunities, corruption should stop — that’s my appeal.”
’Rest peacefully’
More than 3,400 candidates ran for 165 seats in direct elections to the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, with 110 more chosen via party lists. Turnout was 59 percent.
Full nationwide tallies could take several days.
Dixit raised the possibility that Shah’s RSP could stage a dramatic win.
“If RSP hits the magic 138 seats, Balen will become prime minister — and hopefully a cabinet of technocrats,” added Dixit.
Sushila Karki, the interim prime minister, praised the peaceful conduct of a vote she has said was critical in “determining our future.”
Karki, a 73-year-old former chief justice who reluctantly left retirement to lead the nation, now faces the challenge of managing the reaction to results.
The election saw a wave of younger candidates promising to tackle Nepal’s dismal economy, challenging veteran politicians who have dominated for decades and argue that their experience guarantees stability and security.
In Jhapa, 68-year-old shopkeeper Ved Prasad Mainali sat listening to a radio.
