Recently, mainland Chinese media reported a clerical error in business performance figures, where the number “8946” was mistakenly written as “8964” for unknown reasons and used in a headline. After attracting attention from internet users, the articles were either deleted or the headlines were corrected.
On March 26, the official website of the Securities Times reported on the performance of the tea giant “Milk Tea Ice City” in 2024, with a headline stating “Newly opened stores 8964!” This caught the attention of netizens. The Securities Times is supervised by the Party-run People’s Daily and is also a publication designated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to disclose information.
However, the report mentioned in the body of the article that “Milk Tea Ice City” opened a total of 10,555 stores last year, closed 1609, and had an “additional 8946 stores”, which actually did not match the figure of “newly opened stores 8964”.
As “8964” represents the June Fourth Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989, it is a sensitive term often censored on social media platforms in mainland China. The placement of this sensitive term in the headline sparked discussions among netizens.
Many Chinese netizens shared screenshots of the report, mocking the Chinese government’s censorship of speech. Some criticized the authorities for “allowing only state officials to light fires, not letting the people light a lamp.” Others jokingly mentioned that “Milk Tea Ice City insults China”, questioning why they couldn’t open one more store or one less store, but had to open exactly 8964 stores. Some netizens mocked the state media, questioning whether it was “8946” or “8964”, and why “8946 stores” in the article became “8964” in the headline.
On the evening of the 26th, a local media outlet in Fujian, the “Straits Herald”, reprinted the article, once again drawing attention from netizens. According to screenshots circulating online, the reprint initially used the original headline, but a few hours later, the editor made an emergency correction in the early hours of the 27th, changing the number in “newly opened stores 8964” back to “8946”.
Currently, the original report from the Securities Times and some reposted articles on portals such as Sina and Netease have been deleted.
On an overseas platform “X”, netizens engaged in mockery and discussion:
“Another slight revision and it would have become ‘Seek Blood Soldiers City’.”
“The numbers hit a sore spot for the Communist Party.”
“Does Milk Tea Ice City have a Tank People combo? I thought they might introduce new products to celebrate the opening of the 8964th store. Like a Tank Cup ice cream, or Plaza milk tea, etc.”
“It’s super sad, the stigma from ’89 still haunts them like seeing a ghost.”
“This might become a new code for something in the future.”
“The editor probably deals with politics too often, they got it mixed up.”
“Milk Tea Ice City, are you intentionally opening these stores out of malice?”
“A hellish joke.”
“Knocking down 18 stores in a few hours.”
“In China, this number doesn’t exist.”
There were also some netizens who pondered: “In games, the numbers 6 and 4 can’t be put together. It’s strange, who knows why?”