Was the hacking of “Tiananmen” at the Japanese University of Tokyo aimed at blocking access from China?

The discovery of a subtle but inflammatory digital message buried deep in the source code of a University of Tokyo website has sparked an investigation into whether hackers were seeking to block access from China or send a pointed political message.

At the heart of the controversy is a block of text that says “six four Tiananmen,” an unmistakable nod to the crackdown on protesters in Beijing. Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

The hidden characters, written in kanji, were found embedded in pages of the university’s Graduate School of Frontier Science website, including its English-language entrance page and an admissions information section.

University officials are now looking into the motivations of hackers, with one professor suggesting resentment toward the university’s growing number of Chinese students. JapanThe country’s most prestigious university could be a factor.

“Inserting these characters into the code is seen as creating a barrier for Chinese students to access the pages,” the professor told This Week in Asia, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At the moment this is just speculation, but the university is investigating this possibility.”

According to a report published Saturday by Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, the website was launched for the 2023 academic year and the controversial lines of code were discovered in November.

The University of Tokyo. The university has welcomed more foreign students over the years. Photo: AFP