More than 60 academics and members of civic groups launched a petition yesterday to boycott the Chinese-language China Times newspaper over recent controversial remarks by its owner, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), concerning the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Tsai, chairman and chief executive of the Want Want Group (旺旺集團) and owner of multiple media outlets including the China Times, said in an interview last month with the Washington Post that the 1989 crackdown on June 4 in Beijing did not constitute a massacre.