Netizens pay tribute to late Zhao Ziyang

Chinese netizens discreetly paid tribute to the late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang on social network sites on the 8th anniversary of his death on Thursday.

The Chinese characters of Zhao Ziyang’s name remain censored as of Thursday on Weibo, China’s most popular twitter-like service, and a search of his name results in a message that reads, “According to relevant laws and policies, the search results are not shown.”

But a search using a different keyword, “anniversary of death”, results in posts commemorating him.

The post drew over 200 comments and was reposted 430 times as of Thursday afternoon.

“He is the backbone of the Chinese nation,” read a Weibo comment.