A series of violent attacks across China in recent months have pierced a tightly controlled society’s veneer of stability. In late September, a 37-year-old man killed three people and injured 15 others in a stabbing spree at a Shanghai supermarket. In October, a 50-year-old man injured five people in a knife attack in Beijing. Then, on November 11, a 62-year-old man drove into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai and killed 35 people and injured 43 others in what is thought to be one of China’