China's online "tank" cake snafu raises Tiananmen questions

HONG KONG (AP) — An online snafu involving China’s most popular e-commerce livestreamer and a cake decorated to look like a tank has raised questions among some Chinese over the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The order to the People's Liberation Army soldiers to fire on unarmed civilians is a sensitive subject that has long been heavily censored by the ruling Communist Party.

Li Jiaqi, China’s most popular e-commerce livestreamer, is known for hawking everything from lipsticks to frying pans on his online show, where watchers can buy items directly at a discount.

He rose to popularity in 2018, gaining the nickname “Lipstick King” after he one tried on 380 lipsticks during a seven-hour stream, and for selling 15,000 lipsticks in just five minutes during an online shopping festival.

But last Friday, Li’s online show, which draws tens of thousands of viewers, was cut short after a woman appeared on camera holding what appears to be a small white cake decorated with wafers and cookies to look like a military tank, according to screenshots posted on social media platforms.

The abrupt end left thousands of his fans confused. Li briefly became a trending search term in Chinese social media.

The show was on June 3, the eve of the anniversary of the June 4, 1989, crackdown on thousands of students gathered in the vast plaza at the heart of Beijing to demand greater democracy. Hundreds if not thousands of protesters are believed to have died.

One of the most famous photographs of the military crackdown, commonly referred to as ‘Tank Man,’ shows a man holding plastic bags standing in front of a line of tanks, appearing to block their approach up Beijing's main east-west thoroughfare, the Avenue of Eternal Peace, or Chang'an Avenue....