Top court backs bullied boy's right to self-defense

School attack highlighted in latest guidelines on juvenile protection

China's Supreme People's Court has highlighted its strong stance on protecting children, including a landmark ruling recognizing a bullied student's knife attack as justifiable defense.

The court released details on Thursday of five influential cases involving minors, including an incident in Hunan province in May 2019 in which a 14-year-old student surnamed Jiang injured three classmates with a knife.

After an investigation, a court in Jishou, Hunan, found that 15 students had bullied Jiang by beating him, and he carried the knife to the washroom because he had been attacked earlier that day.