On 14 December 2012 between 7 and 8 a.m. local time, a 36-year-old villager identified as Min Yongjun[2] stabbed 24 people, including 23 children and an elderly woman,[3] in a knife attack at Chenpeng Village Primary School (simplified Chinese: 陈棚村完全小学; traditional Chinese: 陳棚村完全小學; pinyin: Chénpéng Cūn Wánquán Xiǎoxué[note 1]), Wenshu Township, Guangshan County, Henan province, China.

[5] The incident has followed other school attacks in China since 2010 by mentally disturbed perpetrators involved in personal disputes or unhappy with the rapid changes occurring in Chinese society.

[5][7][8] Due to strict gun control laws in China, knives are usually the weapon of choice in violent crimes.

[15] An article in The Associated Press similarly wrote that a possible reason why authorities wanted to restrict the news was to either "prevent encouraging others or to play down the crime to keep blame off the government.

[19] Some commentaries situated the knife attacks in the wider context of China's social and economic transformation, noting the inadequacies in the country's health care system for diagnosing and treating citizens with psychiatric distress and illnesses.

The lack of coverage by Chinese state-run news channels, and the lack of any emotional response from the Chinese government at all levels were contrasted to the detailed US media coverage and then-US President Barack Obama's national speech, including his commitment to tackle the underlying issues.