Hangzhou, China

An image of two Chinese athletes hugging during the Asian Games is being censored by Chinese social media after the athletes' race lane numbers inadvertantly formed a reference to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Lin Yuwei and Wu Yanni hugged after women's 100m hurdles final. Lin won gold in the race. As both athletes hugged, Lin's lane number 6 was visible next to Wu's lane number, 4. The Tiananmen Square massacre took place on June 4 1989 and is often referred to as "6/4". Any allusion to the incident on the fateful day in 1989 is censored by Chinese authorities.

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A report in The Guardian cited posts on Chinese social media network Weibo, which said that grey squares were visible in the picture where the numbers should have been.  

Some Chinese news articles however, have reportedly published the photo without any editing. 

The Tiananmen Square protests were huge, student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing and were ultimately suppressed by the Communist government in China. Troops and even tanks were sent to crush the protests.

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In China, internet censorship operations involve human monitors who take a call on what content is to be restricted.

Weibo said in 2017 that it had employed 1000 'supervisors' who were to report on content that was “pornographic, illegal and harmful”. Weibo, the biggest social media network in China has 600 million monthly users.

The race in which Lin Yuwei won gold medal took place on China's National Day on October 1. The race was overshadowed by controversy.

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Wu was given a red card for false start at the beginning of the race. She was allowed to contest after a protest. She finished 0.03 seconds behind her teammate who won the gold. However, Wu was disqualified after the race which allowed Jyothi Yarraji (India) to win silver medal.

Wu Yanni is one of the star athletes in China. Experts and fans of the sport were surprised when she was allowed to run in spite of a red card at the beginning of the race.

Mark Dreyer, a China-based sports expert took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his displeasure

"I'm sure some excuse will be invented for the press conference, but China's track darling Wu Yanni - who's had huge play in Chinese media this year - clearly false started in the women's 100m hurdles. Red card given, no arguments. 5 mins of discussion, then they let her back in," he posted

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Wu Yanni apologised to her fans on Weibo hours after the disqualification. “I am very sorry that I was disqualified due to a false start. I failed to live up to everyone’s expectations and disappointed everyone!”

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