After enduring three years of strict epidemic control measures by the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese economy has sharply deteriorated, leading to a significant increase in the living pressures faced by the people. Recently, a mother in Shandong Province jumped into a river with her 2-year-old child, reportedly choosing to end her life due to immense life pressures. This incident has sparked concern among netizens.
On February 20th, a Weibo user named “StarLanguageColdCold” revealed, “In the Erqu Canal in Liaocheng, Shandong, a young mother jumped into the river with her 2-year-old child. It is said that this family has to pay over 4,000 yuan in mortgage every month. The child is young, she cannot work, and her husband is unemployed, leading to immense pressure. Unable to cope, she resorted to taking such a drastic step. What kind of helplessness and despair lie behind this!”
The netizen expressed, “How desperate must one be to choose such a path with such a young child? Who can understand the moment when this mother jumped into the water with her child, how desperate it must have been? And who can understand how heartbroken she must have been for her child at that moment? She could not bear to leave her child, afraid that the child would suffer without a mother, as no one loves their child more than a mother.”
Xu Lei, the captain of the Red Cross Blue Sky Rescue Team in Liaocheng City, stated, “Around 12 a.m. on the 19th, our team members were diving. Yesterday, we used underwater sonar within 200 meters of the location where she fell into the water, but we didn’t find the person. Today, we have expanded the search to within 20 kilometers.”
As of the time of reporting, mainland Chinese media have been deleting related videos one after another.
In fact, since the beginning of last year, incidents of people in mainland China jumping into rivers to end their lives, including mothers carrying young children, have been frequent. The immense pressures of life are one of the reasons driving these individuals to take such extreme measures.
To prevent such incidents from happening, governments in various regions not only assign personnel to monitor the bridges in their jurisdictions but have also installed “anti-jump knives” on both sides of the bridges to deter potential jumpers. However, it seems to have little effect.
Regarding the frequent suicides in mainland China, independent commentator Cai Shenkun previously stated on the X platform that there are reasons behind these extreme social phenomena, with sadness and even despair prevailing throughout society. The spread of suicidal behavior from the lower class to the middle and upper classes is alarming. If such suicidal behavior is not addressed, it could easily lead to tragic indiscriminate killings.