Two days after the deadliest known violent attack in China in a decade, officials were working to make it seem as if nothing had happened.

在中国十年来已知的最致命暴力袭击发生两天后，官员们正在努力让其看似未曾发生。

Outside the sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai where a 62-year-old man had plowed an S.U.V. into a crowd, killing at least 35 people, workers on Wednesday quickly removed bouquets of flowers left by grieving residents. Uniformed police officers and officials in plainclothes shooed away bystanders and warned them not to take photos. At hospitals where patients were taken after the attack — at least 43 more people were injured — local officials sat outside the intensive care units, blocking journalists from speaking with family members.

在南方城市珠海的一个体育中心，一名62岁的男子驾驶一辆SUV冲撞人群，造成至少35人死亡。周三，工作人员将前来悼念的民众在体育中心外面留下的鲜花迅速收走。穿着制服的警察和穿着便衣的官员驱散旁观者，并警告他们不要拍照。至少有43人在这次袭击中受伤，在收治伤者的医院里，地方官员坐在重症监护室外阻止记者与家属交谈。

“I’m here keeping watch,” one man, who identified himself as a local community worker, said when reporters entered the ward. “No interviews.”

“我是这里的看守，”一名自称当地社区工作人员的男子在记者进入病房时说。“不接受采访。”

On the Chinese internet, censors were mobilized to delete videos, news articles and commentaries about the attack. Almost 24 hours had passed before officials divulged details about the assault, which happened on Monday, including the death toll. Their statement offered limited details, and they have held no news conferences.

中国互联网上的审查人员已行动起来，将所有这次袭击的视频、新闻报道和评论删除。袭击事件发生在周一，官员们在事件发生近24小时后才公布了一些细节，包括死亡人数。官方的通报只给了有限的细节，没有举行新闻发布会。

The response was a precise enactment of the Chinese government’s usual playbook after mass tragedies: Prevent any nonofficial voices, including eyewitnesses and survivors, from speaking about the event. Spread assurances of stability. Minimize public displays of grief.

官方的这种反应完全是按照中国政府在发生了大规模惨剧后的惯用做法行事：阻止任何非官方的声音，包括目击者和幸存者，就事件发表言论。由官方来传递政府的维稳保证。将公开表达悲痛的场景最小化。

The goal is to stifle potential questions and criticism of the authorities, and force the public to move on as quickly as possible. And to a large degree, it appeared to be working.

政府的目的是扼杀潜在的质疑和批评当局的声音，迫使公众尽快把事情忘掉。这个做法在很大程度上似乎奏效了。

Though many residents of Zhuhai, the city of 2.4 million where the attack happened, were clearly shaken, they said on Wednesday they had not questioned the delay in information, attributing it to the government’s need to first sort out what had happened. A steady stream of people arrived by foot or taxi to lay flowers at the sports center’s entrance, but when officials took away the flowers and told the people not to linger, they quickly complied.

袭击发生地珠海市的人口是240万，虽然那里的许多民众明显对此事感到震惊，但他们在周三表示，对政府推迟信息发布没有疑问，他们将推迟的原因归于政府需要先搞清楚出了什么状况。不断有人步行或搭乘出租车来到体育中心的入口处献花，但当官员们把鲜花收走并告诉他们不要逗留时，他们马上就服从了。

A delivery driver on a motorcycle unloaded five bouquets of flowers, which he said he was doing on behalf of people who had ordered them from a nearby flower shop. He had agreed to spend the entire day delivering for that shop, he said, because many other drivers were unwilling to go, worrying about police interference. As he spoke, an officer told him to move on.

一名骑摩托的送货小哥把五束鲜花放在了那里，他说鲜花是他人从附近一家花店订购的。他说，他同意一整天都为那家花店送货，因为许多其他送货小哥不愿接活，担心受到警察的干预。就在他说这些话时，一名警察叫他离开那里。

Workers took the flowers to a nearby building, which was shielded by temporary red barriers. “We’re organizing them,” a man in plainclothes told reporters when asked why the flowers were being removed. “You can see our workers are treating these flowers very solemnly.”

工作人员将鲜花拿到附近的一栋建筑里，那里已被红色屏障临时封锁。“我们正在对花进行整理，”一名便衣男子在被问及为什么要把鲜花拿走时对记者说。“你可以看到我们的工作人员非常严肃地对待这些花。”

工作人员将摆放在体育中心外的临时悼念场所的鲜花拿走，摄于周三。

The sports center — a sprawling complex that includes a swimming pool, badminton courts and two fields with running tracks — is normally lively, residents said. Parents take their children for walks, retirees dance in large groups and others march in walking teams that have become popular among older Chinese.

那是一个巨大的体育中心，里面有游泳池、羽毛球场，以及两个带跑道的运动场。居民们说，那里平常很热闹。父母带着他们的孩子在那里散步，退休人员在那里跳广场舞，也有些人参加徒步团，这种活动在老年人中很受欢迎。

On Monday, just before 8 p.m., the loud music that many groups put on was suddenly interrupted by screams. The police said the driver plowed through the gate of the sports center before barreling into a crowd exercising near one of the tracks.

快到周一晚8点时，许多跳舞的人群播放的喧闹音乐突然被尖叫声打断。警方称，肇事司机开车冲破了体育中心的大门，高速驶向一群在一条跑道附近锻炼的人群。

It was unclear how fast he was driving, or how long the attack lasted. Videos posted on X that were verified by The New York Times showed dozens of people lying motionless on the ground. Many wore the brightly colored uniforms of the walking teams. Shoes, bags and other personal belongings were scattered around them.

目前尚不清楚他当时的车速，也不清楚冲撞持续了多长时间。发在X上的经《纽约时报》核实的视频显示，几十个人躺在地上一动不动。许多人穿着步行队的鲜艳制服。鞋子、包和其他个人物品散落在他们周围。

On Wednesday, most of the sports complex remained accessible but was virtually deserted, with stores inside closed. The area where the attack occurred had been blocked off by metal barriers, with only police cars allowed to enter.

周三，体育中心的大部分地方仍可进入，但里面几乎空无一人，那里的商店也都关了门。袭击发生的地方已被金属屏障封锁，只允许警车进入。

The manager of a basketball training center next to the sports complex said that he and his colleagues had decided to close the center for several days, in part because some of their coaches had witnessed the attack on Monday and were still traumatized. On Wednesday, he led about 20 of the center’s employees in laying flowers at the sports center’s entrance.

体育中心旁边的一家篮球训练中心的经理说，他和同事们已决定关几天门，部分原因是他们的一些教练目睹了周一的袭击事件，仍心有余悸。周三，他带着约20名训练中心的员工在体育中心入口处献了花。

“I’ve just been really depressed this past few days,” said the manager, who gave only his surname, Tang. (He himself had not been present on Monday.) “So many people, gone just like that.”

“过去几天我真的很抑郁，”这名经理说，他只告诉记者他姓唐。（周一他不在现场。）“这么多人就这样走了。”

He added of the flowers: “I guess it’s the simplest tribute we can give.”

他还说，“我觉得（献花）是我们最简单地表示悼念的方式”。

The owner of a nearby liquor store, who also gave just her surname, Ye, said she had been so shaken on Monday that she hadn’t dared leave her store that night.

附近一家酒类商店的叶姓老板（她只愿意透露自己的姓）说，周一的事情让她非常害怕，那天晚上她一直不敢离开商店。

The last known violent incident with so many deaths in China was in 2014, in an attack on a market in Xinjiang that left 39 dead.

中国已知的上一次造成如此多人死亡的暴力事件发生在2014年，当时新疆的一个市场发生袭击事件，造成39人死亡。

In the Zhuhai assault, the authorities said that their preliminary investigation had suggested that the attacker, whom they identified by the surname Fan, was angry because of the outcome of a divorce settlement. The police said that they had not been able to interview Mr. Fan, because he was in a coma after stabbing himself.

当局称，他们对珠海袭击事件的初步调查显示，袭击者姓樊，离婚后财产分割结果让他愤怒。警方说，他们目前无法对樊先生进行询问，因为他用刀把自己刺伤后处于昏迷状态。

Officials said they were stepping up security to ensure public safety. On Tuesday night, officials from Guangdong Province, which includes Zhuhai, pledged to pay closer attention to legal, family and neighborhood disputes, to “prevent and control risks at the source.”

官员们说，他们正在加强治安，以确保公共安全。周二晚，珠海所在的广东省官员承诺将加强对法律、家庭和邻里纠纷的注意力度，“从源头上加强风险防控。”

Local governments have also vowed in recent months to spend more time screening for people who have experienced “failures,” after a spate of violent attacks, including several cases in which schoolchildren were stabbed.

最近发生了一系列暴力袭击事件（包括几起学童被刺事件）后，近几个月里，各地政府已承诺“将‘五失’人员纳入视野”。

周三，虽然体育中心的大部分仍对外开放，但那里几乎空无一人。

But officials were also clearly on the lookout for any deeper scrutiny of the Zhuhai killings. Videos and photos of the scene of the attack showed only as grayed-out squares on Weibo, a social media platform. Blog posts urging people not to treat violent attacks as isolated incidents, but rather to look deeper for potential social causes, disappeared.

但官员们显然也在关注外界对珠海驾车行凶事件的深入审视。社交媒体平台微博上发的袭击现场视频和照片现在仅显示为灰色的方块。几篇呼吁人们不要将暴力袭击视为孤立事件，而要深入分析其潜在的社会原因的博客文章都已消失。

Essays calling on the government to be more transparent were also deleted, such as one by Chu Chaoxin, a veteran journalist. “We really need to know more information, and we have a right to know more,” he wrote. “Social stability and peace of mind have never been achieved by creating an information vacuum.”

呼吁政府提高透明的文章也被删除，比如资深记者褚朝新的一篇文章。“我们还需要知道更多信息，我们也有权知道更多信息，”他写道。“社会的稳定、人心的平静从容，从来不是靠制造信息真空可以实现的。”

Still, those types of voices were most likely in the minority, said Rose Luqiu Luwei, a journalism professor at Hong Kong Baptist University who studies Chinese propaganda and censorship. Most Chinese who do not have access to the uncensored internet are unlikely to have noticed the information vacuum.

尽管如此，香港浸会大学研究中国宣传和审查制度的新闻学教授闾丘露薇说，这类声音很可能是少数。大多数中国人无法访问未经审查的互联网，他们不太可能注意到存在信息真空。

“For those who are able to access information, it will lead to continued disappointment and even anger,” she said. “However, for the majority who do not have timely access to information or sufficient information, the impact is minimal.”

“对那些能够获得信息的人来说，政府的做法将导致持续的失望甚至愤怒，”她说。“然而，对大多数无法及时获得信息或无法获得足够信息的人来说，影响微乎其微。”

Even Zhuhai residents who had already heard about the incident through social media on Monday before videos were removed said that they were accustomed to the gap in information.

就连在视频被删除之前已在周一通过社交媒体对事件有所了解的珠海民众也表示，他们已经习惯了信息鸿沟。

A landscaping worker at the sports center, who said he had gone home before the attack occurred, said that he thought many people had probably self-censored in sharing posts.

体育中心的一名园林工人说，他在袭击发生前已经下班回家，他认为很多人在分享帖子时可能会自我审查。

“The national news departments post. How can people like us dare to post?” the worker, who gave his surname, Yao, said, noting that all social media profiles were linked to I.P. addresses that can reveal users’ locations. Sharing would only lead to trouble, he said.

“发帖是国家新闻部门的事儿。像我们这样的人怎么敢发帖？”这位姓姚的工人说道，并指出，所有社交媒体的个人资料都与用户的IP地址有关联，政府能通过IP地址找到用户的位置。他说，分享只会惹来麻烦。

Mr. Yao was sitting on the outskirts of the complex, watching a video on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, showing flowers that had been laid at the site the night before.

姚先生正坐在体育中心边缘地带在抖音上看一段视频，视频中展示了前一天晚上那里摆放的鲜花。

Several hours later, a search for the Zhuhai sports center on Douyin yielded only 14 results, none of which showed flowers.

几个小时后，在抖音上搜索珠海体育中心，只得到了14条结果，没有一条中有鲜花。