On October 16, 2015, the state sponsored Global Times published an article entitled “Magna Carta Moved to British Embassy for Practical Reasons: FCO.” Some excerpts:
These screenshots were taken on October 16, 2015, and show that Baidu had banned users from establishing a PostBar (Tieba 贴吧) forum on the Magna Carta (大宪章), and a search for “Magna Carta” on Sina Weibo returns no results, just a censorship notice.British authorities on Thursday said that relocating the Magna Carta display from the
Tian Dewen
Credit: CASS
Renmin University of China to the British Embassy in Beijing was because of "administrative and logistical practicalities."
. . . .
The embassy first announced, via its official WeChat account, on October 9, that it would display the document at the Renmin University from Tuesday to Thursday. It later issued a notice changing the display location to the British ambassador's residence one day before the exhibition was due to open.
The abrupt change sparked speculation from Western media, with some reporting that the Chinese authorities blocked the exhibition at the Renmin University of China.
. . . .
There has been no speculation on the location change in the Chinese media.
Observers believed that there was no need to speculate on the location change, as it is common for cultural relic exhibitions.
"The Western media over-interpreted the change, and it's not necessary," Tian Dewen (田德文), a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
