30 years after the Tiananmen Massacre: the mystery about the protagonist of the unforgettable photo that went around the world

Since April 15, 1989, Beijing – before Beijing -, capital and heart of the celestial empire, is a volcano.

And the erupting crater is the Tiananmen Square (or Gate of Heavenly Peace: name of the bloody contrast at this location), one of the largest in the world: 440,000 square meters surrounded by bridges, rivers of golden waters, lotus, monastic silence.

A happy world … about to explode.

They head to their center of intellectuals who accuse the Communist Party of corruption, of city workers to whom the economic reforms – capitalist China with the red tunic – threw the wrath. inflation and unemployment.

But Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China since 1978, almost until his death, in 1997, nicknamed "the small helmsman", because of his political capacity and his small size (1,52), is opposed to the context of the demonstration: a democratic China …

The days and nights that follow, until June 4, look like a balloon that exceeds its capacity to contain air and explodes.

In this case, the trigger was the death (he was very sick) of Hu Yaobang, former secretary general of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, expelled from the government by Deng Xiaoping in February 1987 in response to this year's student protests. For his supporters, a duel difficult to bear …

The call to strike at universities is not long.
Its leaders launch a slogan: "We are Chinese patriots, heirs of the May 4 Movement for Science and Democracy"
Too much for an iron dictatorship …

In reality, the Tiananmen Square had hosted a fair and illustrious episode: in 1976, the demonstrations managed to expel the corrupt "Band of Four", with Mrs. Mao in mind.

But Deng Xiaoping is not willing to go beyond the measures of market freedom and state deregulation. The rest, the reform of the state, the fight against political corruption, the fair trials of prisoners for crimes, the freedom of the press and a full democracy … are an utopia disappeared between silks and clouds Opium …

Hundreds of students begin a hunger strike. The echo reached Ürümki, Sahghái, Chongquing, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese communities of the United States and Europe.

Huge wave. On May 4, more than one hundred thousand students and workers travel to Beijing to demand a dialogue with the authorities. Predictable answer: no!

Nine days later, large groups of students gather around Tiananmen Square and begin a hunger strike for a week.

Polvorín: many sing La Internacional (support for Chinese communism), others smudge the portraits of Mao, and there are cases of death by famine: immolation …

It is urgent to put an end to this. But how?

As political leaders hesitate between the dissolution of the half-machine revolt … or at full steam, a group of former Communist Party members, fearing that this disorder will be a replica of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, orders total repression with a strong hand. Better to kill than to spoil …

Suddenly, troops and tanks of divisions 27 and 28 of the People's Army advance to take control of the square and the city.

By megaphone, the government orders all civilians to stay at home … in front of the television!
Like children …
But not everyone accepts this degrading option.

Thousands of citizens, on the other hand, raise barricades on the roads to hinder the rapid progression of the tanks.

On the night of June 4, by decision of the leaders of the event, the place is empty … but fighting continues in the streets surrounding it.

There is no truce, much less pity. The army fires its automatic weapons at will.

Blood Bath Withdrawal

After, shameful mixture of victims, as in a game of dice. According to sources, a kaleidoscope of dead and wounded with more figures than those of a casino … and always on the decline.

Until one of the telegrams from the British ambbadador to China and witness the mbadacre, Alan Donald, reads: "A senior Chinese government official acknowledged that in these ten – Nine days, from April 15th to June 4th …At least 10 thousand people died! "

This figure coincides with documents already declbadified from the White House: "Deaths: 10,454. Injured: over 40,000"

The same source of the British ambbadador reveals that "the direct perpetrators of the mbadacre were the soldiers of division 27, 60% illiterate and primitive". For ten days they were informed of nothing and later they were informed that they were going to act. in … a TV exercise! They received a green light on the night of June 3 and the operation took place in four phases. 27 armored vehicles opened fire on the crowd before hitting it and without warning. The students were ordered to leave the square, but they attacked them only five minutes after receiving it … They crushed them again and again until they made a meatloaf with them. The remains were picked up by excavators, cremated and dumped in the drains. A thousand survivors were informed that they could escape … and when they tried, they were shot with machine guns. In the mbadacre, more than thirty snipers shooting with explosive bullets were banned by international law. But there were not only dead and wounded. Many survivors were thrown into forced labor camps … for political re-education. "

But at the very center of the mbadacre, there is an unforgettable episode. Eternal The paradigm of rebellion: one against all.

On June 5, as a column of tanks advance towards the target ready to kill, A man – a lone wolf – with nothing more than a small bag in his left hand, stands in the middle of the road, with defiance.

The tanks slow down their march.
The screams of the soldiers do not intimidate him.
Continue like this for an hour, with dignity, with greatness, until you are expelled.
Who is it? This has never been known.

Time magazine chooses it as "one of the most influential people of the 20th century"

The British newspaper Sunday Express He is likely to be Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old student: questionable identification.

Bruce Herschensohn, badistant to former President Richard Nixon and a member of the Ronald Reagan team, said that the character was shot fourteen days after the episode.

Jan Wong, a Canadian journalist of Chinese origin, writes: "Still alive and hidden in a rural area of ​​the country"

William Bell, Canadian writer, swears that his name was Wang Aimin and that he was shot on June 9 …

A mystery that makes the hero more ethereal.

We may remember much later, when the echoes of crime disappear in the mist.