Chinese livestreamer vanishes after sharing ice cream 'tank' on Tiananmen Square anniversary

A famous Chinese livestreamer has been caught in the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to erase the bloody military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square for what may be an honest mistake.

Li Jiaqi, the country’s top e-commerce streamer, and his co-host showed a plate of ice cream from a sponsor with garnish that made it look like a small tank – Oreo cookies on the side looked like wheels and a chocolate ball and stick on top that resemble a tank’s gun.

The stream, which was taking place hours before midnight on June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, was abruptly cut off. Li posted to social media that the stream had to be canceled due to technical difficulties and would get them fixed for future streams.

His fans became concerned when Li missed his next scheduled show on Sunday. By Monday, a search for his name stopped returning relevant search results on Taobao, the shopping site Li streams on – and has 60 million followers, according to CNN.

Many young Chinese born before the 1989 massacre have little knowledge of the day’s tragic events. CNN reports that Li himself, born in 1992, was unaware of why the tank was such a sensitive symbol to display that day.

One expert on Chinese censorship told CNN that Li’s censorship resulted in many of his fans learning about the Tiananmen Square tragedy in a search to figure out why he had disappeared, calling it an example of the “Streisand effect.”

"Censorship is all about keeping the truth from the public. But if people don't know about it, they are bound to keep making 'mistakes' like this," said Eric Liu, an analyst at China Digital Times.

Discussion on microblogging site Weibo has shown some of Li’s fans discussing the sensitivity of the symbol and the massacre, which they referred to as “that event,” which was quickly deleted, reported CNN.

The comments that remained up were those that expressed faith in the CCP despite the event or claiming that Li had been framed by “capitalists” and “foreign forces,” as the ice cream brand was British.