Tiananmen Square protests 1989 This article is more than 13 years old'Tiananmen Square' cartoon removed from Southern Metropolis Daily website
This article is more than 13 years oldA cartoon some say refers to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has been removed from the website of one of China's most assertive newspapers, just two days before the anniversary.
The Southern Metropolis Daily published a series of cartoons for International Children's Day on Tuesday. One showed a boy drawing a line of tanks on a blackboard with what looked like a soldier standing in front.
The image was removed after it started being circulated in China with comments about the massacre. One of Tiananmen's most enduring images (above) is of a man standing in front of a line of tanks, trying to block their way.
The news desk at the Southern Metropolis Daily did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the cartoon.
China's government calls the seven-week, student-led Tiananmen protest a counter-revolutionary riot and has not fully disclosed what happened.
Police usually are quick to snuff out any memorials in Beijing for those killed. The anniversary this year is being met with official opposition even in Hong Kong, the only place in China where any large public commemorative activities are allowed.
Hong Kong police seized a miniature version of the "Goddess of Democracy" statue used in the original pro-democracy protests from a pavement on Saturday and arrested 13 activists protecting it.
The activists were freed on bail later that day and police returned the two pieces yesterday, but Hong Kong authorities today denied entry to the statue's creator, New Zealand national Chen Weiming, after he arrived on a flight from Los Angeles.
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