Trudeau Recalls Doonesbury China Strips

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau recalled a week of planned Doonesbury strips June 3 after violence in China rendered his satire of striking students "not appropriate."

The six-day sequence, scheduled to run June 5-10, poked fun at mainland China's burgeoning, student-led pro-democracy movement centered in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, but Trudeau felt the humor misplaced after Chinese troops attacked the students June 3, killing hundreds - thousands by some reports.

According to a spokesperson for Universal Press Syndicate, the week's strips were mailed out to Doonesbury's 900 subscribers on June 2. After the attack on Tiananmen Square the following day, Trudeau called the syndicate immediately and pulled the strips, offering a new set in their place.