30 years of Tiananmen: what we know of "the man of the tank", world symbol of the demonstrations

The identity and place where is the nickname "tank man", which is still today one of the greatest symbols of peaceful resistance, is a mystery.

On June 3 and 4, 1989, the Chinese army was ordered to end the public protest that occupied the iconic Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing for nearly seven weeks and which had already extended to other parts of the country. .

In Beijing, protesters reached one million, an unprecedented thing in post-Mao China.

They called for more freedoms, an end to corruption and greater transparency of the authorities, among other demands.

After the violent repression that took place on the night of June 3-4, 1989 – and ended with an indeterminate number of deaths, which some sources place in hundreds or even thousands – on June 5 in the morning, image that has become world famous.

Only one protester was standing in front of a tank that was at the top of the line of military vehicles currently crossing Chang An Avenue, the main Beijing Avenue running through Tiananmen Square.

Whenever the vehicle tried to pbad, the man would move sideways to position himself in front of the armored vehicle.

The scene lasted less than two minutes; the man climbs into the tank and two people end up taking it.

The image, which was captured and preserved by cameramen, went around the world.

According to some witnesses, "the man in the tank" was not the only one protesting the fact that he was confronted with the army.

"I saw a lot of people stopping, blocking the tanks," said Shao Jiang, a Chinese student leader in 1989, in a video of Amnesty International.

Was?

Thirty years after this image, we still do not know anything about its protagonist.

"Most likely, he was a student because he was a young man, but no one really knows it," said BBC Chinese service editor, Jinxi Cao.

It's actually one of the most supported theories.

Nobody, at least publicly, has managed to identify him to this point. The British tabloid Sunday Express said in a 1989 article that the man famous in the photo was Wang Weilin, a 19-year-old Chinese student who, according to his friends, was reportedly executed.

But the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at the time, Jiang Zemin, denied any knowledge of the arrest or the name of the young man.

Other theories expressed by different media suggest that it could be a young worker who allegedly participated in the demonstrations or just someone who wanted to show his opposition to the mbadacre, which is still a taboo in China and whose government has never taken part. He offered an official number of victims.

What happened to the lone protester?

The fate of what is also called "unknown rebel" is another mystery.

The video shows how, after repeatedly staying in front of the tank and even climbing over to speak with a member of the army, several young people appear on the scene.

The first on a bicycle, dressed in light colors, who stops to talk to the lone protester. After two other young men dressed in blue, who run towards him raising their hands making an apparent gesture directed towards the military.

They are the ones who take the "tank man".

But then, what happened to the unknown protester?

"I think they did not kill him (…) The people who went to the tanks do not want to crush those who hindered the road," Jiang Zemin himself responded to reporter questions a year after the incident, according to various reports. Press.

The British newspaper The Times has even published an article citing police sources claiming that "they could not find him among the dead nor among those who are in prison".

So, some people believe that "the man in the tank" is still alive. "

"Some theories place him on the island of Taiwan, and others claim that it is impossible to locate him and lives in the interior of the country in the most absolute anonymity, as defends him the work of Red China Blues, the historian Jan Wong.

But the hypothesis that has more strength indicates that it has been executed. According to the British Independent newspaper, Bruce Herschensohn, former special badistant to former US President Richard Nixon, said in a speech delivered in a private club.

But these are information that could not be confirmed.

Forced into oblivion

In China, their image is unknown to many … or that is what they say in front of the cameras, in the midst of strict censorship of this controversial chapter of the recent history of country.

"In the weeks leading up to every June 4th, the world's largest censorship machine is commissioned and activates its huge network of automated algorithms and tens of thousands of human-made redators that clean up any Internet reference, even if direct, "wrote Beijing correspondent BBC John Southworth.

"All references are forbidden," Chinese service Jinxi Cao deepens, "and those who bypbad the restrictions can be easily found and stopped."

A BBC team in the Asian giant went to ask people if they recognized the famous image of the tank. Of those surveyed, only two people said yes and some blamed the journalist for risking showing this image in public.

Cao explains that "many young people should no longer know who they are, because the great Chinese firewall has been working brilliantly for years (…), but middle-aged people can know what this image means, but prefer not to recognize it "

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It is thus that "the chariot man", designated by Time magazine as one of the most influential peoples of the twentieth century, is doomed to be forgotten in his own country.

BBC