Chinese regime hushed up a hit-and-run that left at least 35 people dead

Chinese authorities took nearly 24 hours to announce the death toll from the mass hit-and-run that killed 35 people in Zhuhai. This is an attempt by Beijing to censor the dissemination of information they consider sensitive.

A few hours after the hit-and-run, images of bodies lying in the streets circulated on social media. However, by early Tuesday morning they were gone. Local police initially spoke only of "injured." No details have been offered about the case or whether there are any detainees related to the incident.

Authorities also forced the removal of flowers and candles deposited near the site of the tragedy.

China closely monitors its social networks, where it is common for keywords or content deemed confidential to be deleted, sometimes within minutes. On Weibo, similar to the social network X, photos or videos about the hit-and-run quickly disappeared. The same happened with posts on Xiaohongshu, the Chinese equivalent of Instagram.

State media did not report the 35 dead until nearly 24 hours after the attack. Moments later, the hashtag "Man in Zhuhai runs over crowd causing 35 dead" became the top trend on Weibo.

China has a long tradition of controlling information, which sometimes leads to consequences in disaster response. For example, in 2019, authorities delayed the response to covid-19 and penalized local health officials who warned that the coronavirus was spreading rapidly.