Conspiracy: Shanghai
On the anniversary of the most famous communist crackdown on free speech over the last 25 years, the market just happens to fall the exact number of the date of the famous massacre. Perhaps someone, natural or supernatural, is sending a message to those that oppose freedom? I don't prescribe that the figure had to be rigged, but do find it peculiar to say the least.
Shanghai Conspiracy
Shanghai Conspiracy
China stocks fall bizarre 64.89 on 6/4/89 anniversary
'Whoa, these figures are too freaky! Very cool!'
(REUTERS) — China’s censors blocked access to the term “Shanghai stock market” on popular microblogs on Monday after the index fell a bizarre 64.89 points on the anniversary of the bloody June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
In another twist, the Shanghai Composite Index opened at 2346.98 points on the 23rd anniversary of the killings. The numbers 46.98 are June 4, 1989, backwards.
“Whoa, these figures are too freaky! Very cool!” said a microblogger. “The opening figure and the drop are both too creepy,” said another.
For China's ruling Communist Party, the 1989 demonstrations that clogged Tiananmen Square in Beijing and spread to other cities remains taboo, all the more so this year as the government prepares for a tricky leadership handover.
Terms related to the anniversary, such as "six four" for June 4, "23", "candle" and "never forget", were blocked on Sina Weibo, the most popular of China's Twitter-like microblogging platforms. Users encountered a message that said the search results could not be displayed "due to relevant laws, regulations and policies".
"It's that day again and once more numerous posts are being deleted," a Sina microblogger wrote. Sina was not immediately available for comment.
The anniversary of the date on which troops shot their way into central Beijing in 1989 has never been publicly marked in mainland China.
The government has never released a death toll of the crackdown, but estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.
U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner urged the Chinese government on Sunday "to provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing".
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said the U.S. habit of issuing a statement on each June 4 anniversary amounted to "crude meddling in domestic Chinese affairs".
While state media made no direct mention of the anniversary, the top military newspaper warned the armed forces to be on guard for attempts to sow unrest ahead of the party congress which will handle the leadership transition.
"Enemy forces at home and abroad are going to start something again and use the opportunity for destruction and trouble, and are upping their strategy to westernise and split our country," the Liberation Army Daily said in a front-page commentary.
The government is grappling with the biggest political scandal since the 1989 crackdown, after Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun's flight to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu on February 6 triggered a crisis that toppled the muncipality's party chief, Bo Xilai.
"TRAGEDY THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AVERTED"
Microbloggers decried the overzealous rash of censorship, complaining that their posts had been "harmonised" - a euphemism for censorship - within minutes.
Censors also prevented microbloggers from changing their display photos in an apparent attempt to prevent them from posting any photo commemorating the anniversary.
Yet some people did manage to beat the censors, and a few pictures of the 1989 protests did find their way on to Weibo.
"There can be no social stability if people cannot speak out and must live in terror of punishment," a microblogger commented on one of the photographs.
Yao Jianfu, author of a new book of interviews with Chen Xitong, the Beijing mayor at the time of the crackdown, told Reuters that Chen had said "this was a tragedy that should have been averted but wasn't".
"I never foresaw there would be shooting, because Mao Zedong said that ordinary people should not be shot at and suppressing student protests comes to no good," said Yao.
The government has restricted the movements of dozens of dissidents, former prisoners and petitioners during the anniversary period and warned them against speaking to journalists or organising activities, said Songlian Wang of rights group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
A coalition of lawyers and rights activists began a one-day fast in their homes on Monday to commemorate the anniversary, said a Shandong-based lawyer, Liu Weiguo.
"Even though the Chinese government has pledged to reform the political system in China, not much has been done," Fang Zheng, who was run over by a tank during the crackdown and lost both legs, said in Hong Kong. "They should stop the repression of mainland dissidents and activists and reassess June 4."
Blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, who arrived in New York two weeks ago to study, wrote in a letter: "No one can stop the wheels of history. I believe that this will prove true for the June 4th Democracy Movement.
Chen escaped in late April from 19 months of illegal house imprisonment and took temporary refuge in the U.S. embassy in Beijing in a drama which made him a symbol of resistance to China's shackles on dissent.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend a candlelight vigil in Hong Kong, said organisers, who had erected a replica of the Goddess of Democracy that was built in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Chinese tourists stopped on Tiananmen Square shook their heads and appeared mystified when asked about the anniversary. There were no obvious signs of extra security on the already well-guarded square.
But a trinket vendor said he was well aware what day it was.
"Do foreigners also know about June 4?" he asked a Reuters reporter in a hushed tone, looking around to make sure nobody heard him. "I think it is important we remember, but nobody will talk about it now."
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing, Melanie Lee in Shanghai and James Pomfret and Clarie Lee in Hong Kong; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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