OOPS

Hong Kong Airline Apologizes for Showing Tiananmen Square ‘Family Guy’ Scene

Cathay Pacific says it will have the episode removed from its entertainment menu ASAP.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s main airline, has apologized to customers for including a Family Guy episode referencing the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on its in-flight entertainment menu. “We emphasize that the program’s content does not represent Cathay Pacific’s standpoint and have immediately arranged to have the program removed as soon as possible,” a spokesperson told The South China Morning Post, adding that it had apologized to customers. The scene in question—featured in the series premiere—briefly has Peter Griffin embodying “Tank Man,” the unknown individual photographed standing in front of a trail of Chinese tanks leaving Beijing’s Tiananmen Square one day after government troops killed hundreds of protesters there. The Family Guy clip only lasts a few seconds but, per The Guardian, that was enough to prompt a customer complaint that the airline might be running afoul of China’s stringent censorship laws. Depictions, or even mentions, of the Tiananmen massacre are effectively banned throughout the country, both online and in real life, as is public commemoration of the event.