( CNN ) -- A Cirque du Soleil performance left a Beijing audience audibly shocked when a banned image of the iconic Tiananmen `` tank man '' protester was displayed on giant screens in front of 15,000 people . The politically-charged image -- of a sole , unarmed protester blocking a line of tanks during a 1989 government crackdown in Tiananmen Square -- was displayed for about four seconds as part of a montage of protest imagery during a performance of Michael Jackson 's `` They Do n't Care About Us , '' according to a post on That 's Beijing magazine 's website . `` The result was an audible collective gasp from the audience , '' wrote That 's Beijing 's editor , Stephen George , in a post which has since been deleted . `` The very fact it was displayed , so publicly and on such a large movie theater screen in front of so many people -- and in Beijing , of all places -- felt genuinely quite radical , '' he wrote . `` As my friend commented , ' I ca n't imagine ever being witness to that image being shown in Beijing again , even if I stay here for another 50 years . ' '' The image -- and any mention of the massacre itself -- is banned in China , raising questions of how it made it into the show past the attention of government censors . Cirque du Soleil 's publicist Laura Silverman said that `` the image was removed immediately and is no longer shown '' in the show , the South China Morning Post reported . It quoted her as saying the Canadian performance troupe had submitted the full show for prior approval by the Chinese Ministry of Culture , as visiting performers are required . `` Our scheduled performances will go on as planned , '' she was quoted as saying . The incident occurred during the first night of a three-night run of the troupe 's Michael Jackson : The Immortal World Tour . Subsequent performances proceeded without the `` tank man '' image . The show continues its China run in Shanghai Friday , before moving to Hong Kong the following week . The incident made barely a ripple on Chinese social media , although one user of the Twitter-like Sina Weibo service took offence at the image 's inclusion . `` Why ca n't you separate politics and art ? '' read the comment . `` What would the Americans think if you put a photo of the collapsing World Trade Center in the show ? Keep it out of the performance , stupid French Canadians ! '' CNN 's CY Xu contributed to this report .
CNN shocked a Tiananmen audience by screening an image of `` tank man '' The politically-charged image of the sole protester defying tanks in Beijing is banned in Tiananmen . The troupe says the show 's content was approved ahead of time by Canadians censors . It has removed the image from its remaining Chinese performances .