China Blocks Tiananmen Square Internet Searches

Classic Photo of theTiananmen Square Tank Man

The Tiananmen Square protests in China were supressed on June 4 1989 and are sometimes referred to as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese.

Now here's a bit of a coincidence. On June 4 2012 the Shanghai Composite Index, which is China's biggest stock exchange, fell by 64.89 points.

It was soon noted that 64.89 could also be 6/4/89.

China it seems doesn't like their people discussing Tiananmen Square and so the censors swung into action.

The words Tiananmen Square have been blocked on Internet searches in China. And because of the 'coincidence' the censors have stepped in even more with blocks on Shanghai Composite Index and also the Chinese characters for today, yesterday and tomorrow. The word Candle is also blocked as this symbolises mourning, so the word mourn has been blocked too.

When a search was done for the word today on June 4th on Weibo (a Chinese Twitter) there were no results. Instead a message appeared stating: In accordance with the rules and regulations, 'today' search results have not been displayed.

Weibo also removed the the candle icon from its collection of frequently used emoticons - see China Digital Times.

Sometimes I get frustrated in the UK by what seems to be surveillance and the like but it's nothing compared to China. Guess there's plenty to be thankful for in the west.

Further Reading:
Afghanistan The Ultimate Sacrifice
Is Afghanistan History Repeating Itself?
History Helped Defeat Hitler