Thirty-five people were killed after a man drove a vehicle into a crowd at a sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai, the Chinese police said on Tuesday, in a rare case of deadly violence in a country where police surveillance is ubiquitous.

中国南方城市珠海的警方周二表示，一名男子在该市一个体育中心驾车撞人，已造成35人死亡。在这个警方监控无处不在的国家，这是一起罕见的致命暴力事件。

Another 43 people were injured in the crash on Monday evening, the Zhuhai Municipal Public Security Bureau said. The authorities did not explain why the death toll, one of the country’s highest from a single incident in recent years, was released a day later.

珠海市公安局表示，另有43人在这场发生在周一晚的驾车撞人事件中受伤。当局并未解释为什么一天后才公布死亡人数，这是中国近年来死亡人数最高的单一事件。

The high number of fatalities from what appeared to be a deliberate rampage raises questions about the ruling Communist Party’s record on public safety at time when many people across the country are already on edge over a debilitating property crisis and a slowing economy.

这起看来是蓄意制造、导致了重大伤亡的暴力事件让人对执政的中共维护公共安全的记录提出疑问，事件发生在国内许多人已经因为严重的房地产危机和经济放缓而感到紧张不安的时候。

President Xi Jinping of China on Tuesday night ordered local officials to ensure safety and social stability and “strictly prevent extreme cases,” according to state-run news reports. Within hours, other top Communist Party officials moved to reassure the public that the authorities would bolster security.

据官媒报道，中国国家主席习近平在周二晚间命令地方官员确保安全和社会稳定，“严防发生极端案件”。其他中共高级官员也在几小时内向公众保证，当局将加强维护治安。

The police detained the driver, who was identified as a 62-year-old man with the surname of Fan. He had been driving a small off-road vehicle and rammed it through the gate of the sports center, where people were exercising, the police said. Inside his car, he tried to kill himself with a knife, inflicting wounds on his neck that left him in a coma, the police said.

警方称，已将62岁的樊姓肇事司机拘留。警方表示，此人当时驾驶一辆小型越野车，撞开了体育中心的大门，中心里面有人正在锻炼。警方称，他试图在车内用刀自杀，在自己脖子上砍了几刀，并昏迷了过去。

The police said that they were unable to question the assailant, who remained in a coma and was being treated at a hospital. A preliminary investigation, based on witnesses and other evidence, found that he had been unhappy with how assets had been divided after his divorce, the police said.

警方表示，他们目前无法审问肇事者，因为他仍处于昏迷状态，正在医院接受治疗。警方称，对证人及其他证据的初步调查发现，肇事者对离婚后的财产分割方式感到不满。

该体育中心附近的治安人员，摄于周一。

Under Mr. Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, national security has been a cornerstone of policy, increasingly at the expense of the economy and people’s privacy. The party has rapidly expanded surveillance in recent years, deploying officials and community workers to track residents and head off potential unrest. Many Chinese accept the intrusions as a necessary price for broad social stability.

在中国几十年来权力最大的领导人习近平的领导下，国家安全一直是政策的基石，而且越来越多地是以牺牲经济和人民的隐私权为代价。近年来，中共迅速扩大了监控力度，派官员和社区工作人员跟踪居民，严防可能的骚乱。许多中国人认为，这种侵扰是维护广泛的社会稳定的必要代价。

Any perceived failure by the authorities to protect the safety of Chinese citizens could erode the party’s legitimacy and add to broader social tensions at a time when the country's economic prospects are uncertain.

任何被视为保护公民安全方面的失败都可能削弱中共的合法性，在国内经济前景不明朗的时候，进一步加剧社会上的紧张气氛。

“When domestic demand is so weak and the largest property bubble the world has ever seen has popped, the wealth of the vast majority of households is shrinking and that will inevitably cause a lot of social tensions,” said Victor Shih, an expert on Chinese politics at the University of California, San Diego.

“在国内的需求如此疲软，世界上最大的房地产泡沫破裂的时候，绝大多数家庭的财富正在缩水，这将不可避免地引发许多社会上的紧张气氛，”加州大学圣迭哥分校的中国政治专家史宗瀚(Victor Shih)说。

The authorities appeared to move swiftly to control the spread of information, reflecting a longstanding fear of drawing public criticism over how the government handles threats to public safety.

当局似乎已迅速采取行动，控制有关信息的传播，反映了政府长期以来对其处理公共安全威胁的方式招致公众批评的担忧。

Videos of the attack and discussions on social media briefly took over the Chinese internet on Monday night but were swiftly taken down by censors. Local media interviews of witnesses were also mostly removed from the internet by Tuesday evening. The incident occurred on the eve of an annual air show in the city held by the People’s Liberation Army.

周一晚，驾车撞人事件的视频和社交媒体上的有关讨论曾短暂地成为中国互联网上的主要话题，但这些内容很快被审查人员删除。到周二晚上，当地媒体对目击者的采访也大多从互联网上删除。事件发生在解放军在珠海举办年度空展的前夕。

Still, many videos circumvented the reach of Chinese censors and were shared with users on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.

尽管如此，许多视频还是躲过了中国审查机构的审查，并被分享到社交媒体网站X（前身名为Twitter）上。

The videos, verified by The New York Times, showed what appeared to be the aftermath of the incident, with dozens of people lying motionless on several sides of a path that encircled an outdoor running track. Shoes, pouches and other personal belongings were scattered on the path. Some survivors were shown trying to perform CPR. Others, still covered in blood, sat on the street waiting for assistance. People could be heard on videos calling for help.

经《纽约时报》核实的视频似乎显示了事件发生后的情景，几十个人倒在一条室外圆形跑道的两边，一动不动。鞋子、小包和其他个人物品散落在地上。视频中可看到一些幸存者试图对倒在地上的人进行心肺复苏。还有些人浑身是血，坐在地上等待救援。视频中可以听到人们呼救的声音。

Online commenters speculated that the Zhuhai incident was another example of an attack aimed at taking revenge on society, a phrase used to describe the motives of people who carry out attacks on random civilians. Such attacks are usually carried out by individuals with knives.

网上的评论者猜测，珠海事件是又一起以报复社会为目的的袭击事件，中国用“报复社会”一词来描述随意袭击平民的动机，袭击者通常是持刀伤人。

In September, a 10-year-old student was fatally stabbed by a Chinese man near a Japanese school in southern China. In June, two American instructors from a college in Iowa were stabbed in northeast China, and a Chinese national who tried to intervene was knifed in the abdomen. In May, at least two people were killed and 21 others injured when an assailant went on a rampage with a knife at a hospital.

今年9月，一名10岁学生在中国南方一所日本学校附近被一名中国男子刺死。今年6月，爱荷华州一所大学的两名美国教师在中国东北被人用刀刺伤，一名试图阻止袭击者的中国公民的腹部被刺伤。今年5月，一名袭击者在一家医院持刀冲向人群，造成至少两人死亡、21人受伤。

摆放在该体育中心外面的花束和蜡烛，摄于周二。

The sense that the attackers in such incidents are possibly acting out of frustration with a rapidly changing society also points to the country’s relatively low spending on social welfare and mental health services, especially during economic hard times.

这类事件的袭击者可能出于对快速变化的社会不满而采取行动，这种看法也反映了中国在社会福利和心理健康服务方面的支出相对较低的问题，尤其是在经济困难的时候。

“We saw a similar thing in the U.S. in 2008 and 2009,” Mr. Shih said. “But the difference is that in the U.S. there was a bit of a social safety net, like social security payments for the unemployed to dull the edge of economic hardship. There is nothing like this in China.”

“我们2008年和2009年在美国也看到过类似的事情，”史宗瀚说。“但不同的是，美国有一些社会安全网，比如失业者能拿到社会保障金，以缓解他们的经济困难。中国没有这种东西。”

State media reported that more than 300 medical staff from five different hospitals were involved, and residents lined up to donate blood. Officials on Tuesday rushed to signal that the authorities were moving quickly to address broader security concerns.

中国官媒报道称，来自五家不同医院的300多名医务人员参加了救助伤者的工作，居民们排队献血。官员们周二匆忙向公众释放信号表示，当局正在迅速采取行动，解决更广泛的治安问题。

Li Qiang, China’s premier, said the government must “investigate hidden risks and social conflicts.” Huang Kunming, the top Communist Party official for the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where Zhuhai is, called for “greater efforts and more powerful measures” to protect people’s lives.

中国总理李强表示，政府必须“切实做好风险隐患和社会矛盾排查化解”工作。珠海所在的广东省的中共最高官员黄坤明要求“尽最大努力挽救生命，最大限度减少因伤致残”。