Iowa lawmaker’s brother, Iowa City native among Cornell instructors attacked in China

MOUNT VERNON — Four instructors with Mount Vernon’s Cornell College, who are teaching abroad as part of a collaboration with a university in China, were injured Monday in an attack "during a daytime visit to a public park,” college officials shared with their campus Monday.

The instructors — including a brother of Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City — were with a faculty member of the partner institution when the attack occurred, according to Cornell, which has been in contact with the instructors and is helping them.

“They were touring a local temple and were attacked by a man with a knife,” Zabner said about his 33-year-old brother David Zabner, who also is from Iowa City and earned his bachelor’s degree from Cornell before later teaching there.

“My brother was stabbed in the arm,” Adam Zabner said, having learned about the attack in the middle of the night from his parents, who had received a call from their son in China. “He is recovering. He was stitched up. They held him overnight because of blood loss. But it sounds like he’s OK.”

Zabner said his understanding is that another two instructors who were attacked are in intensive care. He did not have additional information about their conditions, and Cornell didn’t share details about the instructors’ injuries or their severity.

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David Zabner, who since 2021 has been a doctoral student at Tufts University in Boston, worked a year at Cornell — through which he first went to China as a visiting instructor in 2021. Because of that experience, his brother said, he “joined them on this summer trip.”

“But he’s actually a resident of Boston,” Adam Zabner said.

No students are taking part in the partnership program, according to Cornell spokeswoman Jen Visser.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks released a statement Monday on the “stabbing of Americans at a public park in Jilin City, China.”

“My office and I are in touch with an impacted Iowa family,” she said. “We are working through proper channels and requesting to speak with the U.S. Embassy on appropriate matters to ensure that the victims first receive quality care for their injuries and then get out of China in a medically feasible manner.”

Adam Zabner said he and his family also have been in touch with the U.S. Embassy and consulate, “who were extremely helpful in the early stages of this.” He also thanked Miller-Meeks and Sen. Chuck Grassley for their help to “sort this out and get my brother home.”

“I'm just extremely thankful to the State Department and embassy and to our federal delegation for all their help in trying to sort this out,” he said.

Chinese collaboration

In fall of 2018, Cornell announced a partnership with Beihua University in Jilin City — with the Chinese Ministry of Education approving the collaboration and both institutions signing agreements.

Per the arrangement, Beihua was to pay for Cornell professors to travel and live in China and teach a portion of a course over a two-week period, according to the Cornell news release in 2018.

The instructors were charged with teaching in several areas — including computer science, mathematics, and physics.

“Like a lot of industries in this country, we have to look internationally as we move into a more global economy,” Cornell College Dean Joe Dieker said at the time.

Beihua is situated in northeast China in a province of more than 24 million people in a city with a 2024 population estimate of 1.6 million.

The program, according to Cornell, focuses specifically on students studying communication engineering — combining physics, computer science, and engineering.

Following this weeks’ attack — citing arbitrary detentions and exit bans potentially keeping Americans from leaving the country — the Associated Press reported the State Department has issued the Level 3 travel advisory, the second highest warning level, for mainland China.

That advisory urges Americans to “reconsider travel” there. And it has compelled some American universities to suspend their China programs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com