MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A Tiananmen Square publicity video triggers the fury of the Beijing government

The video shows a photographer running from Chinese policemen before taking a picture of the “tank man”, a protester standing in front of a convoy of tanks

Germany's Leica Camera AG drew criticism on Chinese social media over a video depicting a news photographer covering the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square three decades ago. The five-minute dramatization, released this week, touches on a highly sensitive topic in China.

The ruling Communist Party has never declared how many people died in the crackdown and discussion of the incident is censored on social media.

The video shows the photographer hiding and running from Chinese-speaking policemen before taking a picture that has come to symbolise the protests - the “tank man” - a protester standing in front of a convoy of tanks to block their path. The video ends with the Leica logo.

The hashtag “Leica insulting China” surfaced on China's Twitter-like Weibo late on Thursday (April 18), before being censored.

Users left hundreds of comments on Leica's official Weibo account criticising the company for the video. “Get out of China, you are done,” one user posted.

Others cheered the video as daring ahead of the 30th anniversary of the crackdown on June 4, but the majority of posts were scrubbed from Chinese social media by Friday and the comments section on two of its most recent Weibo posts were disabled.

Users were also prevented from posting messages using Leica's English or Chinese name with warnings that they were violating laws, regulations or the Weibo community guidelines.

However, Leica spokeswoman Emily Anderson was quoted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post as saying the video was not an officially sanctioned marketing film commissioned by the firm.

The video was created by Brazilian ad agency F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi and published on its verified Twitter account on April 16 with a tweet in Portuguese that said: “Inspired by the stories of photographers who spare no effort so that everyone can witness reality, Leica pays tribute to these brave professionals.”

Advertising websites such as Ads of the World republished the video saying it was created for Leica.

Last year, companies ranging from Delta Air Lines to Muji were criticized by the Chinese government and netizens for the language they used to describe Taiwan, a self-ruled, democratic island that Beijing considers a wayward province.