Communist party redoubles efforts to silence any mention of Tiananmen Square in the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the bloody suppression of the student protests
A blood-covered protestor holds a Chinese soldier’s helmet following violent clashes with military forces during the demonstrations Photo: SHUNSUKE AKATSUKA/REUTERS
Beijing5:30AM BST 18 May 2014
If you search for “1989” on Baidu Baike, China’s version of Wikipedia, you will only find two entries: “1. 1989 is the number between 1988 and 1990” and “2. 1989 is the name of a computer virus”.
All other events from 1989 have been scrubbed from the record, including of course the most famous event of all in recent Chinese history: the moment when People’s Liberation Army soldiers opened fire on civilians in Beijing after months of student protests in Tiananmen Square.
Even 25 years after the events of June 4, the Communist party is continuing, indeed intensifying, its long-running campaign to force the Chinese public to forget what happened.
On the Internet, blogs or social media posts about “Tiananmen Square” and “June 4” are quickly censored – as are all the various sleights of hand that the Chinese might use to indicate the forbidden date.
For example, 6-4, 64, 63+1, and 65-1 are all blocked. So too are “May 35th” and “April 65th”. Even the Roman numerals for 6 and 4 (VIIV) are banned, as are mixing numbers and letters such as “8q b 4” for “89.6.4”.
In the past, censors have removed posts containing the words “tomorrow” and “today” on the eve and day of the anniversary, as well “in memory of”, pictures of candles, and even “sensitive word”.
The names of the leaders at the time, especially of Zhao Ziyang, who was purged as general secretary of the Communist party for supporting the students, are all wiped.
Chinese gather to demand democracy in Tiananmen Square (AFP)
Still, there have always been creative workarounds. Last year, cunning posts showed the picture of Tankman, the lone man blocking a column of tanks reimagined in Lego, or with the tanks photoshopped into giant rubber ducks.
As well as wiping the Internet clean, police have stood guard at all major intersections around Tiananmen Square since March and have put many of the families of victims from the protests under surveillance.
At least nine people have so far been criminally detained, many of whom took part in a seminar to remember the Tiananmen massacre last month. One person, Xu Guang, a former student leader from the protests, was charged with subversion of state power on May 9. Four more have been disappeared, but not yet accused of a crime.
One of those, Chen Guang, was a soldier who took part in clearing the square and has since become an artist. He disappeared after staging a private show in his studio in the Beijing suburb of Songzhuang on April 29.
About a dozen people attending the show, which featured Chen silently whitewashing walls carrying numbers from 1989 to 2014.
One of his friends told the New York Times: “People want to remember what happened on June 4, but they can’t do it in public spaces. Now apparently you can’t even remember in private.”
