The rise of youth suicide in China
Stress over schoolwork has driven up the youth suicide rate

A 10-year-old boy in China jumped 30 floors to his death after his teacher reportedly told him to, Chinese media reported on Thursday. Jun Jun of Chengdu had been ordered to write a 1,000-character apology for talking during an assembly, and his family said that when he failed to complete the assignment the teacher told him to go jump out a window. The distraught fifth grader evidently took the command seriously. His family said they found "Teacher, I can’t do it," scrawled in one of his textbooks. "I flinched several times when I tried to jump from the building."
Grieving and angry, the family hung a banner outside the school that read: "Return my son! Explain to all parents and kids." The school said on its own Weibo account that the child died "by accident."
Suicide is the top cause of death among Chinese youth, according to China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (In most Western countries, accidents cause the greatest number of youth deaths.) Every year, roughly 250,000 people commit suicide in China, while another two million attempt to. Stress over school is usually a major factor, and jumping out of a window is by far the most common method. Experts say that is evidence that these suicides may often be impulsive — as opposed to long-mulled or carefully planned — acts.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It’s become such a problem that some Chinese universities are now forcing incoming students to sign waivers absolving the university of responsibility for a student’s suicide. Weibo, the Chinese microblogging site akin to Twitter, erupted in outrage in September after City College of Dongguan University of Technology made its students sign a "code of conduct" saying they were solely responsible for suicide or injury. That school wasn’t the only one to do so: Shandong Jianzhu University in Jinan said it adopted a similar code and so did many others a few years ago, after a wave of legal claims filed by parents of dead or injured students.
Some experts say China’s one-child policy could play a role in the rise of youth suicide. "Don’t forget that many youngsters today have no siblings," Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, director of the Center for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong. "Many of them, unlike their parents, never really master the ability to deal with difficult interpersonal relationship problems," he said.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Susan Caskie is The Week's international editor and was a member of the team that launched The Week's U.S. print edition. She has worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Transitions magazine, and UN Wire, and reads a bunch of languages.
-
How will Wall Street react to the Trump-Powell showdown?
Today's Big Question 'Market turmoil' seems likely
By Joel Mathis, The Week US
-
Google ruled a monopoly over ad tech dominance
Speed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling as a 'landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
El Salvador's CECOT prison becomes Washington's go-to destination
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Republicans and Democrats alike are clamoring for access to the Trump administration's extrajudicial deportation camp — for very different reasons
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across Syria
THE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weapons
The Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
By Abby Wilson
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarray
In the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?
The Explainer Donald Trump's 'dictator' jibe raises pressure on Ukraine to the polls while the country is under martial law
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK
-
Why Serbian protesters set off smoke bombs in parliament
THE EXPLAINER Ongoing anti-corruption protests erupted into full view this week as Serbian protesters threw the country's legislature into chaos
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Who is the Hat Man? 'Shadow people' and sleep paralysis
In Depth 'Sleep demons' have plagued our dreams throughout the centuries, but the explanation could be medical
By The Week Staff
-
Why Assad fell so fast
The Explainer The newly liberated Syria is in an incredibly precarious position, but it's too soon to succumb to defeatist gloom
By The Week UK
-
Romania's election rerun
The Explainer Shock result of presidential election has been annulled following allegations of Russian interference
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK