Tank man & # 39; video for Leica sparks outbreaks in China in front of the tsunami anniversary

BEIJING (Reuters) – Germany's Leica Camera AG criticized Chinese social media over a video depicting a news photographer covering the impact of Protemocratic protests in and around Beijing Tiananmen's place three decades ago.

Five-minute dramatization, released this week, touches a very sensitive topic in China. The ruling Communist Party has never declared how many people died in the crash and the 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 symbolize the protests – the "tank man" – a protester standing in front of a thought convoy to block the road. The video ends with the Leica logo.

The hashtag "Leica abusive China" found on China's Twitter-like Weibo late on Thursday, before being censored. Users left hundreds of comments on Leica's official Weibo account criticizing the company for the video.

"Get out of China, you're done," a user posted.

Others encouraged the video as bold before the 30th anniversary of the crashes on June 4, but the majority of the posts were scrubbed from Chinese social media on Friday, and the comments on two of the latest Weibo posts were disabled.

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

Leica did not respond to multiple calls and emails from Reuters who wondered about commentary on the video, which included other dramatization about news photography.

However, Leica spokeswoman Emily Anderson was quoted by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post when he said the video was not an officially approved marketing film commissioned by the company.

"Leica Camera AG must therefore abstain from the content shown in the video and regret any misunderstandings or false conclusions that may have been drawn," she quoted in the e-mail and added that the company had taken steps not to share the movie Leica social media channels.

The video was created by Brazilian advertising 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 do not save anything for anyone to witness the reality , Leica greets these brave professionals. "

Advertising sites like Ads of the World published the video saying it was created for Leica.

Some netizens suggested that the video could put pressure on Chinese telecom equipment provider Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which uses Leica lenses in their high-end phones.

Huawei refused to comment while F / Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, who previously produced videos to Leica, did not immediately respond to comment requests.

Several foreign companies have been hit by touching on certain topics that may provoke strong public reactions in China, including boycott calls.

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-governing democratic island that Beijing considers a weighing province.