Counting echoes of Tiananmen in market fall
Source: Financial Times
In a country that ascribes great meaning to numbers, the Chinese stock market’s fall on Monday was a potent and, for the government, dangerous symbol.
The Shanghai Composite index tumbled 64.89 points – a freakish coincidence on the anniversary of the June 4 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters, an event that is known in Chinese simply as “six-four”.
The government, which has long tried to silence discussion of the bloody events in Tiananmen Square 23 years ago, acted quickly. Searches for the phrase “Shanghai Composite index” were banned by censors on popular microblogs.
“According to the relevant laws, regulations and policies, the results for this search term cannot be displayed,” Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, told users.
Read more: http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35285900-ae3a-11e1-b842-00144feabdc0.html
Thom Hartmann discussed this article at the top of this hour.
