A Chinese cable television service broadcast censored Tiananmen Square Massacre pictures and messages condemning the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), locals said, in what appeared to be a rare hacking attack.
Viewers in the eastern city of Wenzhou on Friday used social media to post images of television slogans referring to the CCP as “bandits,” and photographs of the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.
Such images are almost never shown by media in China, where the CCP censors anti-government messages and references to incidents it deems sensitive, such as the Tiananmen Square Massacre when the army killed hundreds — by some estimates, thousands — of protesters.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the messages, which appeared on several different channels available through a local cable broadcaster, though Internet users speculated that the provider had been hacked.
A Wenzhou resident surnamed Gu said that he had turned on his television on Friday evening to be greeted with a photo of a tank on Tiananmen square.
“I found it irritating... it doesn’t feel right to vent your opinions by sacrificing others’ interests,” he said, adding that similar images and anti-communist slogans were broadcast for about four hours.
Another local resident, who declined to be named, said that his TV had shown a slogan saying: “Bandit Communists you’ve done too many evil deeds and now you’re feeling guilty.”
The Wenzhou branch of China Cable said on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter: “At the moment some areas of Wenzhou city are receiving unusual broadcasts; technical staff are currently trying to solve this issue. We hope viewers will understand.”
Several photos posted on Sina Weibo — which were later deleted — showed a TV screen displaying a banner which read “Free Wang Bingzhang,” referring to a Chinese pro-democracy activist jailed for life in 2003.
“Communist bandits are the real criminals,” a message shown in the corner of one viewer’s screen said.
Another photograph showed the channel displaying the iconic “Tank Man” photo from the 1989 crackdown, showing a lone man standing in front of a column of tanks.
Cable viewers also saw a message reading: “Friends, don’t co-operate with Communist devils,” imposed on top of a broadcast of a basketball match.
Subscribers were also shown graphic images showing apparent human rights abuses in the country, such as a protester being squashed under a truck.
The CCP does not tolerate organized dissent, and has regularly jailed members of any group which challenges its right to rule the country.
Internet users expressed surprise at the broadcasts, which were said to have ended late Friday, with some speculating that hackers were behind the attack.
Members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which has been banned in China since the late 1990s, have occasionally been accused of hacking local broadcasters in China to broadcast messages accusing the government of persecution.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS