Why China doesn't want its people to see this photo of athletes hugging

China has wiped this photo of two female athletes hugging after a race at the Asian Games from social media.

Gold medal winner Lin Yuwei was pictured in an embrace with Wu Yanni after the 100m hurdles final at the sporting event, when their race numbers formed '64'.

But it is believed to have been censored on the Chinese social media due to it inadvertently referencing the Tiananmen Square massacre.

The pairing is widely seen as a reference to June 4, 1989, when hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were shot dead in Tiananmen Square.

Beijing tightly controls references to the event, with all mention of it scrubbed from the internet in China.

References to it on social media, including innocuous moments when the number 6,4 and 89 appear together and are unrelated to Tiananmen are erased.

The picture of the two athletes had been posted to Weibo, one of China's largest social media sites, but now appears to be unavailable.

Searches on Weibo no longer yield results of the same image, though scattered postings of another photograph showing the two athletes crossing a hurdle with their lane numbers on display - though in an less conspicuous manner - can still be found.

The photograph also cannot be found on Baidu, China’s popular search engine, and Google services are blocked in the country.

The image can be seen in an article published Monday by state news agency Xinhua but the numbers have been cropped out of the photo, according to CNN.

Another contributing factor to its removal could be down to the race taking place on October 1, China’s National Day.

A national and delicate occasion, authorities are more vigilant against any signs of dissent that may distract from celebrations.

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