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A man looks at candles left outside the Zhuhai Sports Centre, a day after a car rammed through the site killing dozens in Zhuhai, in south China's Guangdong province on November 12, 2024. Michael Zhang, AFP

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Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1731481859688New Project.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="A man looks at candles left outside the Zhuhai Sports Centre, a day after a car rammed through the site killing dozens in Zhuhai, in south China&#x27;s Guangdong province on November 12, 2024. Michael Zhang, AFP"/><span class="fr-inner"></span></span></span></div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">A man looks at candles left outside the Zhuhai Sports Centre, a day after a car rammed through the site killing dozens in Zhuhai, in south China&#x27;s Guangdong province on November 12, 2024. Michael Zhang, AFP </p><div></div><p>BEIJING — At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man ploughed his car into pedestrians exercising around a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday night.</p><p>Footage showing bodies lying on the pavement appeared on social media in the hours after the crash but had vanished by early Tuesday morning, and local police reported only &quot;injuries&quot;.</p><p>It took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died — in one of the country&#x27;s deadliest incidents in years.</p><p>Here AFP looks at how China jumps into action to block information it does not want shared:</p><div><strong>Social media scrub</strong></div><p>China heavily monitors social media platforms, where it is common for words and topics deemed sensitive to be removed — sometimes within minutes.</p><p>On X-like social media platform Weibo, videos and photos showing the bloody moments after the incident late Monday night were swiftly deleted.</p><p>Videos of the aftermath posted to Xiaohongshu, China&#x27;s equivalent to Instagram, were also taken down.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/11/12/35-killed-dozens-wounded-in-south-china-car-ramming-721">READ: 35 killed, dozens wounded in south China car ramming</a></div><div><strong>24-hour delay</strong></div><p>Chinese officials did not reveal that dozens had died until almost 24 hours after the attack, with state media reporting the 35 deaths shortly after 6:30 pm on Tuesday.</p><p>Soon after, the hashtag &quot;Man in Zhuhai rammed the crowd causing 35 deaths&quot; jumped to the No. 1 trending topic on Weibo and reached 69 million views within an hour.</p><p>The fatal crash happened on the eve of China&#x27;s largest airshow, taking place in the same city, a showpiece event promoted for weeks by the country&#x27;s tightly controlled state media operation.</p><div><strong>State narrative</strong></div><p>State media in China also acts as a government mouthpiece.</p><p>The state-backed newspaper Global Times on Wednesday morning published a short story on the &quot;car ramming case&quot; on page 3 — a stark contrast to the front page feature on fighter jets at the airshow nearby.</p><p>The Communist Party&#x27;s People&#x27;s Daily included Chinese President Xi Jinping&#x27;s instructions to treat injured residents and punish the perpetrator in a short block of text on its front page.</p><p>State broadcaster CCTV&#x27;s flagship evening news programme, Xinwen Lianbo, on Tuesday spent about a minute and a half on Xi&#x27;s directive to &quot;treat those injured&quot; during the 30-minute show, but shared no footage from the city.</p><div><strong>&#x27;Order from the top&#x27;</strong></div><p>AFP reporters on the scene in Zhuhai late Tuesday night saw delivery drivers placing online orders of flower bouquets beside flickering candles to commemorate the victims.</p><p>But just a few hours later, cleaning staff cleared away the memorial, with some telling AFP they were acting on an &quot;order from the top&quot;.</p><p>A handful of people at the site were blocked from taking videos by a police car and security guards shouting: &quot;No filming!&quot;</p><div><strong>Long history</strong></div><p>China has a long history of clamping down on the spread of information, sometimes leading to costly delays in response.</p><p>Authorities in 2008 worked to stifle news of contaminated milk that poisoned about 300,000 children — days before the start of the Beijing Olympics.</p><p>The Chinese government that year also restricted foreign media access when protests broke out after an earthquake in southwest Sichuan province killed an estimated 70,000 people.</p><p>And Chinese censors delayed an early response to Covid-19, penalising local health officials who warned of a fast-spreading coronavirus.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J4C-QI0fWgk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div>

<p>China has a long history of clamping down on the spread of information, sometimes leading to costly delays in response.</p>

China has a long history of clamping down on the spread of information, sometimes leading to costly delays in response.

How China's censorship machine worked to block news of deadly attack

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How China's censorship machine worked to block news of deadly attack

Agence France-Presse

Published November 13, 2024 03:11 PM PHT

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