By Star Chang, posted Jun 7, 2012 at 11:50 AM, 381 views,

The Chinese Are Not Allowed to Discuss Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index on Social Network

Searches for “Shanghai Composite” were blocked from China’s most-used microblogging service after the stock index’s drop on the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown corresponded to the date of the event. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped by 64.89 points on this Monday, matching the date on which the Chinese authorities crushed student-led protests on June 4, 1989. Queries for “Shanghai Composite” on Sina Weibo, China Twitter-like service, returned a message that said results can’t be displayed “in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and policies.”…

Each year, the Communist Party’s censors go to remarkable lengths to prevent Chinese citizens from accessing, or spreading, their memories of what happened on June 4, 1989, when an unknown number of Chinese student were killed during a military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the center of Beijing. Since last Sunday night, not only the most sensitive Chinese word “Tiananmen Square” , even simple numbers like 6 (the month of June), 4 (the date) and 89 have been banned search terms on all Chinese social-networking sites. Eventually even the Chinese word for “today” – was a banned search term on June 4. The censors subsequently decided that even some non-words pose a threat, disabling a function on Sina Weibo that allowed users to post a candle emoticon.

Such farces would only multiply throughout this Monday’s anniversary. As the day went on, even the stock market news were caught in the censors’ ever-widening nets. The weakening outlook for the global economy hit Asian markets hard. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was among those that saw losses, falling precisely 64.89 in trading this pass Monday – a random reminder of the very anniversary the government was working so hard to make people forget. Those who saw the data might have recognized the familiar numbers. Shortly after trading ended, the Chinse words of “Shanghai Composite Index” joined China’s long list of banned terms on social media site. While Queries for “Shanghai Composite” on Baidu, China’s most-used Internet search engine, will still give you results that showed the index’s decline.

A spokesman from the Shanghai Stock Exchange said that they didn’t see anything abnormal in the market on this pass Monday. We believe it’s rather difficult to orchestrate the stock index but the coincidence is just mind-boggling. And it’s unreasonable for the Chinese word of “Shanghai Composite” to be banned for search on a social media plaform with 300 million registered users. That means right now the Chinese are not allowed to talk any staff about Shanghai Composite Index on social network, we will see how long the authorities want to hold-up this stupid communist action.

SOURCE: nj.com, THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Photo credit: Apple Daily