Yesterday (June 4) marked the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident. As usual, the Chinese Communist Party strengthened internet censorship around this period, censoring many sensitive contents related to the event. However, the closing numbers of the Chinese stock market yesterday once again displayed a curious pattern – a decrease of 0.64%, sparking discussions.
According to data from “Yahoo! Finance”, both the Hong Kong and mainland China stock markets saw major indices mostly on the decline. The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 4057.78 points, down by 26.19 points, a decrease of 0.64%; while the Shenzhen A-share Index closed at 4255.27 points, down by 27.49 points, also a 0.64% decrease.
Every year on June 4, the internet in China enters a highly sensitive state. Numbers like “8964”, candle patterns, and images related to tanks are likely to be restricted or removed. But this year, the stock market itself produced two instances of “0.64%”.
This incident has stirred discussions on overseas platforms: “Malicious stock speculation”, “Not a coincidence?”, “Very interesting, seems intentional”, “There are enemies within!”, “The CCP fears whatever it fears”, “(Mainland) many media dare not mention how much the market dropped, just self-deception”.
Similar coincidences have occurred in the past. On June 4, 2012, the Shanghai Composite Index opened at 2346.98 points. Some netizens noticed that when this number is reversed, it reads “89.64”. What’s even more astonishing is that on that day, the index closed down by 64.89 points, exactly “64.89”.
In recent days, numerous accounts on overseas platforms have shared information about the CCP ramping up internet censorship around the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Incident:
On the eve of the Tiananmen anniversary, platforms such as QQ, WeChat, Pinduoduo, and Douyin entered “system maintenance” mode, temporarily suspending the function of “editing personal information”.
On June 3, almost all popular mobile games in China were effectively “muted”. Games like Honor of Kings, Clash Royale, and Journey to the West activated maintenance mode, strict limitations on social functions, including personal profile and avatar modifications, comment functions, sharing functions, text-to-speech, live streaming functions, decoration functions, etc.
Additionally, some bloggers revealed that WeChat Moments now prohibit sharing Taylor Swift’s “1989” album, and accounts are banned if such posts are made.
A large number of Chinese netizens are substituting “Crazy Thursday” for “Eight-Nine-Six-Four” to commemorate the event, leading to urgent censorship by the CCP.