Chinese censors 'Tiananmen' picture of sportsmen hugging during the Asian Games

 Chinese censors 'Tiananmen' picture of sportsmen hugging during the Asian Games

 Chinese social media has blocked a picture of two female athletes from China that unintentionally referenced the Tiananmen Square tragedy.

Lin Yuwei and Wu Yanni's racing numbers together make the number "64," which is a typical reference to the incident that took place on June 4.

In China, talking about the incident is still frowned upon, and the government frequently removes any references to it from the internet.

Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were killed by military in Beijing in 1989.

Although the exact number of deaths that day are still unknown, estimates from human rights organizations range from several hundred to several thousand.

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After Ms Lin's gold-winning 100-meter hurdles competition at the Asian Games, the athletes had hugged one another. In the picture, she was wearing lane number 6 next to Ms. Wu, who was wearing lane number 4.

On Weibo, one of the most popular social networking sites in China, many had congratulated Ms. Lin, but posts with photos were replaced with gray squares.

However, some Chinese news stories still display a picture of the two sportsmen, suggesting that the image has not been entirely removed off the internet.

The Asian Games, which are presently taking place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, have seen China win close to 300 medals so far. It is scheduled to go till October 8.

The Tiananmen Square massacre is a topic that should not be discussed in China because younger Chinese generations are growing up knowing very little to nothing about it.

The government has strict control over the internet, thus posts about the massacres are frequently deleted from it.

On the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the massacre, a popular Chinese influencer's livestream last year came to an abrupt end after he showed his audience a vanilla log cake that looked like a tank, making reference to the famous image of the so-called Tank Man, which depicts a civilian with shopping bags blocking a line of tanks.