Last year, an overpass in downtown Beijing, China, was the scene of a banner protest calling for Xi Jinping’s ouster.

The security around the overpass where the protest took place has recently been significantly increased.

At the same time, the plaque has been removed and the overpass is no longer searchable on maps.

For some reason, our correspondent Lim Guangbin was on the scene in Beijing.

[Reporter]

In October last year, black smoke rose from an overpass in the center of Beijing, along with a banner that read “Dismiss Xi Jinping먹튀검증.

It was just three days before the 20th Party Congress, which was set to confirm President Xi Jinping’s third term in office.

The banner protest took place on an overpass named Stongqiao, about 10 kilometers northwest of Tiananmen in central Beijing.

The banner protest was followed by a white paper protest that put the brakes on China’s “zero corona” quarantine policy, making Stongqiao, along with Tiananmen, a bastion of pro-democracy activism in the country.

Recently, however, security at overpasses and intersections around Stung Chao has been significantly increased.

Police and police vehicles are stationed within a roughly one-kilometer radius, and even cellphone photography of the overpass is now prohibited.

In addition, the plaque that reads “Stung Chao” has been removed.

Stung Chao has also disappeared from mapping apps in China, and social media accounts mentioning Stung Chao have been blocked.

The overpass is located not far from some of China’s most prestigious universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua University.

6.4 Ahead of the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, some analysts believe that the move is intended to preempt possible anti-government protests by young people, including university students.

China’s erasure of Tiananmen has grown in intensity with each passing year.

The annual candlelight vigil for the victims, which has been held in Hong Kong since 1990, the year after the Tiananmen massacre, has not been held since 2020, when the Hong Kong Security Ordinance was implemented.

In response to demands from international rights groups that Beijing admit responsibility for the “massacre” and apologize to the bereaved families, the Chinese government on Jan. 1 retorted that the matter was prematurely concluded and asked them not to interfere in its internal affairs under the guise of human rights issues.

I’m Lim Kwang-bin for Yonhap TV from Beijing.