Cartoon in Chinese newspaper reminds some of Tiananmen crackdown, then is taken down

China cartoon brings reminder of Tiananmen, erased

BEIJING — A cartoon some Chinese say refers to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has been removed from the website of one of China’s most assertive newspapers, just two days before the crackdown’s anniversary.

The Southern Metropolis Daily on Tuesday published a series of cartoons for International Children’s Day. One showed a little boy drawing a line of tanks on a blackboard with what looked like a soldier standing in front.

The image has been removed from the newspaper’s website after it started being circulated online in China with comments about the crackdown. One of Tiananmen’s most enduring images is of a man standing in front of a line of tanks in the heart of Beijing and trying to block their way.

The news desk at the Southern Metropolis Daily did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the cartoon Wednesday.

The 21st anniversary of the crackdown is Friday.

China’s government calls the seven-week, student-led Tiananmen protest a counterrevolutionary riot and has not fully disclosed what happened.

Police usually are quick to snuff out any memorials in Beijing for those killed in the crackdown.

The anniversary this year is being met with official opposition even in Hong Kong, the only place in China where any large public commemorative activities are allowed.

Hong Kong police seized a miniature version of the “Goddess of Democracy” statue used in the original Beijing protests from a sidewalk on Saturday and arrested 13 activists protecting it.

The activists were freed on bail later Saturday and police returned the two pieces on Tuesday, but Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday denied entry to the statue’s creator, New Zealand national Chen Weiming, after he arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.