On Oct. 6, Occupy Wall Street inspired some little-noticed sympathy in Zhengzhou, a city in central China's Henan province, when hundreds of pensioners and Communist Party members gathered to express their solidarity with the movement.
Photos show a small group of demonstrators, many wearing red armbands, holding a banner that reads, "Resolutely support the American People’s mighty Wall Street Revolution."
But the demonstrators may have crossed an invisible line with the Chinese Communist Party. Videos and pictures of the demonstrations were scrubbed from the Internet within days. Censors have selectively blocked discussion of Occupy Wall Street on social media websites and pared down coverage in the state-run press.
"When Occupy Wall Street first happened, the Chinese government perceived this movement as a big victory for communism over capitalism," said Wen Yunchao, a prominent Chinese blogger based in Hong Kong.
Chinese media outlets initially carried news of the demonstrations with a readiness bordering on zeal. An article last month in the English-language China Daily even lambasted American news outlets for downplaying the protests.
"It is a shame that most so-called mainstream media outlets have miserably failed to inform the public over the past two weeks," it said.
That was before the movement went global, slowly transforming from an attack on Wall Street banks into a global stand against income inequality and corporate greed. Within the last few days, state-owned media have begun to significantly downplay the movement.
There is currently no mention of Occupy Wall Street on the website of the New China News Agency, the state news service.
