Chinese censors scrubbing the internet of any words or symbols that could be used to reference the Tiananmen Square massacre in the run-up to Sunday’s anniversary have a new target in their sights: a bridge in Beijing where a rare protest was staged last year. As the 34th anniversary of the 1989 massacre approaches, anyone searching in Chinese for Sitong Bridge on Baidu maps will draw a blank. On 13 October 2022 white banners with large red characters criticising the Chinese Communist party (CCP) were hung over the bridge near…
Tag: Tiananmen Square protests 1989
Tiananmen Square books removed from Hong Kong libraries in run-up to anniversary
Books about the Tiananmen Square massacre, Hong Kong protest movements, and other subjects deemed politically sensitive by Beijing have been removed from the former British colony’s public libraries in the lead-up to the 34th anniversary of the killings. Hong Kong media have reported a marked increase in the number of book and documentary removals, which have been growing since the authoritarian clampdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the introduction of the national security law in 2020. It has resulted in a major curtailing of political freedoms in the city,…
Doctor who exposed China’s cover-up of Sars crisis dies aged 91
A military surgeon who exposed the Chinese government’s cover-up of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic 20 years ago and lived for years under intermittent house arrest has died in Beijing. He was 91. Dr Jiang Yanyong died of pneumonia and other illnesses on Saturday, according to two of his friends. A person who answered the phone at his home confirmed his death but declined to talk further. Jiang had been in ill health in the past few years. Jiang, who had been the chief surgeon at the Chinese…
Hong Kong court jails Tiananmen anniversary vigil organisers
A Hong Kong court has jailed three former members of a group that organised annual vigils to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in China. Chow Hang-tung, 38, a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and former vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, was among those convicted by a magistrate’s court. The two others were Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong. The three were jailed on Saturday for four-and-a-half months for not complying with a national security police request for information. Speaking before sentencing,…
The Guardian view on bearing witness: when the mourners too are gone | Editorial
“We conquer death, dear children,” proclaimed Hebe de Bonafini, leader of Argentina’s Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. She devoted decades to ensuring that her sons, “disappeared” by the military junta in the late 1970s, were kept alive, if only in memory. The Mothers at first demanded the return of their children and then the punishment of those responsible for seizing and killing them. The risks they took were immense: the group’s founders were abducted and thrown into the ocean from “death flights”. But as politicians, the church and almost…
Disney+ channel launches in Hong Kong, without the Simpsons Tiananmen Square episode
An episode of the Simpsons in which the cartoon American family visit Tiananmen Square is absent from Disney’s streaming channel in Hong Kong, at a time when authorities are clamping down on dissent. The missing episode adds to concerns that mainland-style censorship is becoming the norm in the international business hub, ensnaring global streaming giants and other major tech companies. The Hong Kong version of Disney+ started streaming this month and customers soon noticed that an episode of the Simpsons featuring China was absent. Episode 12 of season 16, which…