An American college instructor who was stabbed in China is returning to the United States, according to a state representative.
Iowa State Rep. Adam Zabner
released a statement on his Facebook account on June 12 that his sibling, David Zabner, had been discharged from the hospital and “is on his way home.”
“It will be a long day of travel but we expect to have him home on Thursday,” the lawmaker wrote before thanking both Beihua University and Cornell College for “all of their support.”
Mr. David Zabner is one of four instructors from Iowa’s Cornell College who was
attacked on June 10 while they were in a park in China’s northeastern city of Jilin. They were in China for a teaching exchange program with the local Beihua University.
The four instructors were subsequently taken to a local hospital for treatment. According to local police, a 55-year-old male suspect surnamed Cui was arrested on Monday following the attack.
The state representative thanked the State Department and the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang for having been “incredibly supportive.”
“In the past few days, we’ve also received assistance from Vice President [Kamala] Harris’s office, and the offices of Senator [Chuck] Grassley and Representative [Mariannette] Miller-Meeks. I am deeply thankful for their commitment to bring David home,” the state representative added.
It appears that Mr. David Zabner is the first of the four victims to leave China. “It is not our place to share information about David’s colleagues, but we are holding them in our thoughts and we hope that they can be home soon as well,” the lawmaker wrote.
The incident comes as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Biden administration are making efforts to boost
people-to-people exchanges, as the two sides spar over issues such as trade, technology, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Taiwan.
A day after the stabbing attack, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan issued a statement
expressing deep concern and also hope that the instructors would have a speedy recovery.
On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns
wrote in a post on social media platform X that he had spoken with each of the four victims on the phone. He also said that U.S. Consul General Sara Yun, in the Chinese city of Shenyang, “visited each victim in the hospital” on the same day.
At the time of writing, Mr. David Zabner is the only victim to have been publicly identified.
According to Mr. Burns, three of the instructors are U.S. citizens and the other a non-citizen resident of Iowa.
Ms. Meeks, who represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, previously
took to X to say that her office was working to ensure that the victims “first receive quality care for their injuries and then get out of #China in a medically feasible manner.”
The Epoch Times contacted Rep. Adam Zabner and Mr. David Zabner for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
