Chinese Government Remembers Tiananmen Square with War on Internet, Umbrellas

Isaac Fitzgerald bio ↓  ·  June 4th, 2009  ·  filed under Media, politics

Twenty years ago today, June 4, 2009, the Tiananmen Square massacre took place in Beijing, China. In hopes of whitewashing the bloody anniversary, instead of coming to terms with it, the Chinese Government has unleashed a media crackdown, blocking Twitter, Hotmail, Flickr, and YouTube (which has been out since March), according to CNN. There are also reports of international television channels being blacked out at any mere mention of the historic event.

But none of that compares to the silliness the Chinese Government is engaged in at Tiananmen Square today. With hopes of discouraging international reporters from doing on-site broadcasts, a number of plains clothes police officers are disrupting camera crews with… umbrellas. That’s right, umbrellas.

Despite the government’s imaginative efforts at censorship Tiananmen Square is being remembered around the world today. The New York Times even has a photo, never before published, that gives a new angle on “tank man.”

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Related posts:
-Postcards From Tomorrow Square

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Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and been given a sword by a king, thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals by the age of 25. He has also written for AlterNet, McSweeney's, and Mother Jones. He is the managing editor of The Rumpus. Follow him on Twitter. More from this author →

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