Updated
The large-scale and at times tense democracy protests in Hong Kong have made headlines around the world, yet this movement in the Chinese territory is not seen as a major news event in mainland China.
Most of the newspapers in Beijing have placed more emphasis on the country's national day celebrations on October 1, the start of a week-long holiday.
On Wednesday afternoon the 65th anniversary of China becoming a republic was the lead news item on qq.com, a news portal run by one of China's biggest internet companies Tencent.
The protests in Hong Kong ranked number eight, after a story about the easing of property restrictions and the discovery of a naval vessel from the first Sino-Japanese war.
The message conveyed in these two Hong Kong-related articles echoed the line of argument that has been repeatedly conveyed by Chinese officials and state media; that the student-led protests are illegal and affect business.
In a piece written by a person under the pseudonym "Peaceful Country", the author argued that protesters were being prodded by outsiders who had ulterior motives.
It also said that if the "extreme opposition" in Hong Kong really loved the city, they should spare a thought for its future by stopping demonstrations.
'Umbrella revolution' absent from social media in mainland China
A look on China's equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, also reflect a similar theme, because many posts are heavily censored.
Search terms such as "umbrella revolution" - which is what the protests have become known as – are now blocked.
A person reading the news on this social media platform is unlikely to have an idea about the size of the protests.
The reader is also unlikely to have seen photographs of some of the lighter moments of the blockade, for example young Hong Kongers picking up trash, separating rubbish into recyclables and non-recyclables, doing their homework on the street and putting up handwritten signs apologising to the public for the inconvenience.
The ban on the "umbrella revolution" phrase may be lifted because Chinese censors constantly update their list of blocked search terms. But for now it is too sensitive.
And do not even try photo sharing apps and websites such as Instagram and Flickr, because those are not working either.
It is still not clear why authorities have blocked all these platforms because there are so many other ways these images can be shared, even on Chinese-owned social media.
Perhaps it is just paranoia because other disrupted services include broadcasts by CNN and the BBC - stations which most Chinese households do not have access to.
Topics: activism-and-lobbying, government-and-politics, world-politics, social-media, elections, hong-kong, china, asia
First posted
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1vwtYvE
0 comments:
Post a Comment