Asian Games: China censors photograph of two athletes on account of Tiananmen Square reference

China reportedly censored {a photograph} of two Chinese hurdlers embracing after a race as a result of their lane numbers shaped an unintentional reference to the Tiananmen bloodbath in 1989, CNN reported.

In the picture, Lin Yuwei, from lane 6, and Wu Yanni, in lane 4 could be seen hugging following the ladies’s 100-meter hurdles last on the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

As they stood collectively, stickers exhibiting their lane numbers shaped “6 4”, a pairing broadly seen as a reference to June 4, 1989, CNN mentioned.

Notably, on that day Chinese navy tanks rolled into the capital Beijing throughout a bloody crackdown to clear college students protesting for democracy in Tiananmen Square.

Beijing tightly controls references to the occasion, scrubbing all point out of it from the web inside China, and transferring shortly to erase any reference to it on social media, together with even seemingly innocuous moments when the numbers 6, 4 and 89 seem collectively and are solely unrelated to Tiananmen, CNN reported.

The race occurred on October 1, China’s National Day, a fragile event when the authorities are extra vigilant towards any indicators of dissent which will distract from celebrations, the information report mentioned.

State broadcaster CCTV initially posted the {photograph} on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media service, on Sunday evening, however eliminated it from its account about an hour later, CNN reported.

A search on Weibo not yielded outcomes of the identical picture, although scattered postings of one other {photograph} exhibiting the 2 athletes crossing a hurdle with their lane numbers on show – although in a much less conspicuous method – can nonetheless be discovered, the resort mentioned.

The {photograph} can’t be discovered on Baidu, China’s well-liked search engine and Google companies are blocked within the nation.

The picture could be seen in an article printed Monday by state information company Xinhua however the numbers have been cropped out of the photograph, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, China imposes stringent censorship not simply on criticism of the Communist Party but additionally on issues it deems delicate and incongruous with the occasion’s values and beliefs.

The guidelines have prior to now led to the censorship of what would possibly seem to some to be innocuous pictures, corresponding to girls’s cleavage and males modelling in lingerie as a gimmick on social media to spice up gross sales, CNN reported. 

(This information report is printed from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content material has not been written or edited by OpIndia workers)