Baidu and Sina Censor Searches and Block Discussion of Hu Yaobang on 24th Anniversary His Death

April 15, 2013, was the 24th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), who was Chairman of the Communist Party from 1981 to 1982, then as Party General Secretary from 1982 to 1987. According to a 2012 article entitled "Thousands Mourn for Hu Yaobang in Jiangxi" published by the state-sponsored magazine Caijing: "After his death in 1989, 100000 students marched on the Tiananmen Square, which is later called the Tiananmen Square Protest in 1989."

These screenshots were taken on April 15, 2013, and show that Sina Weibo was censoring searches for "Hu Yaobang," and Baidu was banning users from establishing PostBar (Tieba 贴吧) forums about Hu.

These screenshots, taken on April 20, show that Baidu was censoring searches for "Hu Yaobang Tiananmen" (胡耀邦 天安门) and "Hu Yaobang Rehabilitate" (胡耀邦 平反), but not for "Hu Yaobang Tianan" (胡耀邦 天安) or "Hu Yaobang Ordinary" (胡耀邦 平凡 - "Ordinary" is homophonous with "Rehabilitate").