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Here's why you can't search for 'yellow duck' on a Chinese website

The term has been blocked on the country’s most popular social networking site Weibo which is similar in style to Twitter.

The ‘Tank Man’ image which has been altered to replace the tanks with large yellow ducks (Vincent Yu/AP).

A POPULAR CHINESE microblogging service banned searches for “yellow duck” after users circulated a mocked-up image of a famous 1989 Tiananmen square tank protest with the military vehicles replaced by plastic ducks, results today showed.

The picture, a parody of the iconic “Tank Man” photograph of a civilian staring down a long row of tanks, circulated yesterday, the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests’ suppression.

A large yellow duck artwork is currently on display in Hong Kong, and imitations have been put up in several mainland cities.

The fake image that has been making the rounds on Weibo (Image: Sina Weibo).

Sina Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site, blocked searches for “yellow duck”, with attempts to do so returning a message reading: “Due to relevant laws and regulations… the search result is not displayed.”

Other search terms banned by the service include “1989″ and numerical formulae such as “63 + 1″, used to refer to the date of the crackdown – “6.4″ in US-style date order, which is also blocked.

Discussion of the Tiananmen crackdown, in which at least several hundred people died, is strictly controlled by China’s ruling Communist party, which is wary of challenges to its authority.

Reports say that Sina, the company which runs Sina Weibo, employs teams of censors to delete posts, generally exercising self-censorship rather than receiving direct instructions from the Party.

- © AFP 2013.

Read: Locked doors a sign of China work-safety failings>
Read: No charges for mother of Chinese toilet pipe baby>

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    Mute Boganity
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    Jul 27th 2014, 12:07 PM

    Only temporarily the Dutch KCT and the Australian SAS are on the ground are securing the area

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    Mute Peter Gavin
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    Jul 27th 2014, 12:22 PM

    There is no way the rebels would allow Western special forces into the area

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    Mute Boganity
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    Jul 27th 2014, 12:53 PM

    How would they know, special forces aren’t going to announce their arrival in advance, they’re already 1.5 to 2.0 kilometres off the perimeter of the debris field watching and waiting.

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    Mute Neal Ireland Hello
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:00 PM

    It will be pretty obvious who they are when they get to the site and start looking at the debris.

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    Mute Boganity
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:05 PM

    Good man Neil you should have read the post your responding to

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    Mute Boganity
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:25 PM

    Special forces don’t engage, they watch and wait, unseen and unheard, even if you’re standing right on top of them, but you’ll never get that close because at 1500 metres you never hear the shot… and your comrades can’t return fire because they have no idea where it came from.

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    Mute Justin McNulty
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:42 PM

    If you know they’re there, I’m pretty sure anyone who matters knows they’re there. So somebody’s announced it!

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    Mute John Deegan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:46 PM

    Poor Boggy isn’t the sharpest tool on the box. He’s assuring us that the special forces are securing the area but nobody knows about it except himself. Of course one wonders boggy why the whole thing has then been called off. But I forgot boggy doesn’t engage with conspiracy loons like myself so I guess well never know lol Go back to sleep boggy there are more inane threads for you like 20 things I hate about Monday or something lol

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    Mute Stephen Earle
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    Jul 27th 2014, 3:11 PM

    Is this some video game your playing because it aint reality

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    Mute Celticspirit321
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    Jul 27th 2014, 1:19 PM

    Ah Jaysus, will the whole Ukraine Army invade the site and clear it. It’s not like Russia will invade seen as it’s Ukraine territory

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    Mute Boganity
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:11 PM

    Oh dear now you’ve done it Celtic, it’s like that scene in Jurassic park where we see the ripples in the glass of water, the conspiracy loons are coming cause they heard you.

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    Mute John Deegan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:39 PM

    It’s a pity the Kiev gov dramatically increased its assault upon the rebel positions at exactly the same time MH17 came down and hasn’t let up since. Perhaps the Kiev gov could lay off the shelling to allow an investigation? This is the same gov which won’t release the ATC transcripts or tell us why the flight was diverted over a war zone or why one of their fighter jets was tailing the flight.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 2:56 PM

    John. The flight was not diverted. I challenge you to provide proof that it was.
    And you still haven’t answered by question in the previous thread.
    So I will ask it again here for a third time.
    How did a missile fired from behind hit the Front of the fuselage of MH17? An R60 heat seeking missile has only a 3lbs warhead. Enough to take out one engine and not much more. And as a SU25 cannot carry the larger radar guided R77 which even if it was fired by say a MiG 29, how would it have missed the largest radar return coming from that direction the Tail section? Now we know that the crash investigators at the site have confirmed the the Front of the planes fuselage was where the explosion occured. So will you answer the question please.

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    Mute John Deegan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 3:11 PM

    Excuse me Mick Jordan but can you point out where I claimed MH17 was hit by an air to air missile? I am simply asking why was the fighter jet present tailing the the flight?

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 3:38 PM

    So John how did MH17 get shot down?
    And How does an SU25 Fly 6km above its maximum unlaiden flight ceiling?
    Now you say Russia has produced Satellite photos of an SU25 behind MH17. Now a satellite photo is 2 dimensional. It can tell you how far a plane was behind MH17. But it cannot tell you the altitude unless the plane was sitting on the ground.
    So lets say just for arguments sake an SU25 was behind MH25 flying at its maximum unlaiden ceiling 7000 mtrs, 4km below MH17. Now the guy sitting at the Fire Radar in the SA11 would see two blips on his Radar screen at 2 different altitudes and 2 different strengths the larger plane giving the stonger signal. Now the operators in the SA11 launcher would deduce that the smaller return was a Military jet and because they are expecting to see large transport planes like the ones they had previously shot down assume that the larger one was an An 26. So he says to himself what is the bigger prize. The slower less manuverable transporter full of troops or equipment or the agile Fighter.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 3:39 PM

    And John where is the Proof that the plane was diverted that I asked you to produce?

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 4:52 PM

    How many times does it have to be said, an Su-25 is NOT a fighter plane.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 5:02 PM

    Sry Jason. I had to use term “Fighter” just to get my point across as the other side seem to be incapable of distinguishing an Air Superiority Fighter and a Close Support Ground Attack Aircraft.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 5:43 PM

    Wasn’t directed at yourself Mick, it was directed at John and indirectly Horgay who want to use sensationalist language rather than facts.

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    Mute Rory J Leonard
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    Jul 27th 2014, 6:04 PM

    If Putin had a humane bone in his body he would see to it that MH17 crash site was properly cordoned off and thoroughly searched for remaining 98 innocent victims of that atrocity in Eastern Ukraine.

    A few week’s cessation of hostilities there would show some degree of humanity and allow air accident investigators carry out their work.

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    Mute Horgay H
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    Jul 27th 2014, 4:00 PM

    Ukraine has been at this a while now. It’s as if they have something to hide re the awful plane crash.
    Ukraine prevented the OSCE monitors from deploying to the crash site for two days definitely and probably three by shelling the area heavily.

    Ukraine refuses to say why Ukrainian secret police confiscated air traffic data immediately after the crash.
    Ukraine refuses to even admit why one of its military fighters approached the civilian plane immediately prior to the crash.
    Ukraine refuses to answer questions as to why it moved it’s buk anti aircraft system out of the area immediately after the crash despite saying they had no such systems in the area.

    All these lies. These are fundamental questions that our Western media will not answer never mind debate. It is much worse than what Wells predicted, much worse.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 4:10 PM

    Horgay. Ukraine did not prevent anyone from deploying to the site that is an outright lie. The Terrorists did as shown by video evidence and statements by the OSCE monitors themselves.
    There have been 2 confessions by Terrorist leaders that they Shot down MH17. There are also taped phone conversations between Terrorists and their GRU handlers about their shooting down of MH17. There is also the confession of one the Terrorists that they did have 3 SA 11 launchers and got them from Russia. We also have video of the debris immediately after the attack falling from the sky where Locals can be heard in the background saying “Its a good job we got those Missiles”.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Jul 27th 2014, 6:19 PM

    “Ukraine refuses to say why Ukrainian secret police confiscated air traffic data immediately after the crash.”

    Standard practice to examine ATC tapes as part of the investigation.

    “Ukraine refuses to even admit why one of its military fighters approached the civilian plane immediately prior to the crash.”

    The aircraft was NOT a fighter jet, nor could it even hope to follow MH17 as it simply could not fly at the same altitude as MH17.

    “Ukraine refuses to answer questions as to why it moved it’s buk anti aircraft system out of the area immediately after the crash despite saying they had no such systems in the area.”

    Does a sovereign nation need to explain the movements of its military? The pro-Russians were very quick to say that the Russians didn’t have to explain the movements of their military when the Russians held large drills on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

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    Mute Paddy Stewart
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    Jul 27th 2014, 4:52 PM

    Animals the lot of them,bullies with weapons,put down ur guns and bombs and fight ya windy nutter pigs,should be all melted in tar

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    Jul 28th 2014, 9:39 AM

    And your point is?

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