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.”
