A small plane broke through one of the world's strictest no-fly zones on Friday evening (June 27), crashing into Beijing's tallest skyscraper, the CITIC Tower (also known as China Zun). After the incident, the Chinese Communist Party quickly suppressed information, drawing attention and mockery from foreign media. CNN said that hours after the event, it was as if nothing had ever happened, thanks to the CCP authorities' tight control over information and China's vast censorship apparatus.
After the crash, glass shards and plane wreckage fell hundreds of feet to the streets below. CNN reported that the accident sparked panic in Beijing's most tightly secured capital zone. However, due to the CCP's emergency information blackout, all related news and shocking video clips were swiftly deleted from Chinese social media. The government initially did not confirm the incident, and state media, including China Central Television (whose headquarters are near the crash site), remained silent. It was as if nothing had happened.
Nearly a day after the incident, the Beijing Chaoyang WeChat public account issued a symbolic notice stating that at 5:55 p.m. on June 26, a single-engine two-seat light sport aircraft collided with a high-rise building near East Third Ring Road in Chaoyang District. The aircraft had only the pilot on board, who died, and 13 people were injured on site. The notice said the situation was under further investigation by the authorities, but it did not specify the exact location, the name of the building hit, or details about the pilot.
CNN said the "information vacuum" left witnesses or those who initially saw the news full of questions. It remains unclear whether the crash was intentional or accidental. Perhaps the most concerning and puzzling aspect for authorities is how the plane managed to fly into the heavily guarded heart of China's capital. Any light aircraft flying in Beijing must obtain approval from both the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the CCP military. Last month, Beijing issued a comprehensive regulation effectively banning private recreational flying and consumer drone flights.
The struck building, CITIC Tower, is only about a 20-minute drive from Zhongnanhai, where top CCP leaders are based. Such incidents are extremely rare in China.
A Beijing resident named Anna told CNN that she saw posts about the plane hitting the building online and rushed to the scene, but the posts were quickly deleted.
The videos continue to circulate widely on overseas social media. However, searching for the incident on China's Weibo yields no results. Searches for images of CITIC Tower only show old photos of the building before the crash. The CCP authorities consider such incidents sensitive.
CNN said the CCP authorities typically act quickly to censor or block information and deploy large numbers of police to deal with any event that might disrupt social stability. After the CITIC Tower crash, staff answering phones at the relevant branch of the Beijing Public Security Bureau told CNN they "were not aware of the situation."
On Saturday, although police were still deployed around the CITIC Tower, they did not publicly say it was due to the plane crash. According to the Financial Times, streets leading to the CITIC Tower were blocked by police on Saturday, and officers searched bags of everyone entering the surrounding streets. When asked why the streets were blocked, an officer said, "No particular reason, just traffic control."
