Asian Games 2023: questions raised over picture of athletes wearing lane numbers 6 and 4
- Wu Yanni and Lin Yuwei’s lane numbers inadvertently match the dates of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown
- Pair pictured hugging after 100m hurdles final, with overseas media claiming it was deleted
China has been accused of censoring a picture of two of its Asian Games athletes embracing on the athletics track when the numbers on their uniforms inadvertently matched the dates of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
But the picture in question, which is published below, was taken by state media and was not scrubbed from the internet as some netizens, and overseas media, claimed.
The incident at the end of the women’s 100 metres hurdles final involved gold medallist Lin Yuwei, who won in a time of 12.74 seconds, and compatriot Wu Yanni, who initially won silver before being disqualified for a false start.
A picture of the hug was posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo by state media outlet CCTV.
The photograph was replaced with a grey square in some Weibo posts that had mentioned Wu and Lin hugging, although there were suggestions this had been done by netizens making a point over the sensitive nature of the subject matter, and not by censors.
The phrase “6/4” is a common reference to the Tiananmen Square crackdown, which took place 34 years ago on June 4. Discussion of the deaths and protests are routinely censored by authorities online and scrubbed from China’s internet.
