Disappearance of "Tank Man" China

Anyone who is at least 25 years old and who questions the power that one individual can have should remember back to a June morning in 1989. There, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, a column of tanks moved through as a show of force against thousands of demonstrators. Suddenly, a lone figure, a man in a white shirt stood before the tanks, blocking their way. They could have squashed him like a bug with no problem...but they didn't. They stopped, and the lead tank attempted to maneuver around the man. Always facing them, the man moved with the tank each time it tried to evade him. He forced the mighty power of this most populous nation on earth to confront him...to look in his face.

This "tank man's" stand has become the most enduring image of Tiananmen Square, and one of the most enduring for 20th century freedom. Now Frontline explores who this man was, what he did, what happened to him and what he meant for China in "The Tank Man." This documentary is an important look at modern-day schizophrenic China -- engaging in some free-market reforms while still quashing dissent.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• tank
• man
• china
• politics
• tiananmen
• square
• massacre
• student
• demonstrations
• PBS
• frontline

[PeoplesGeneral]

Whats even more amazing is that the supposedly "evil commie" tank driver actually STOPPED his tank and didn't just bumrush and runover the tankman. Like any soldier his humanity probably got in the way of the orders that was given to him by his commanders.

Same thing is happening with Israeli soldiers in Palestine, and American troops in Iraq.

[fatpanda1000]

I am a Chinese!

They are all smart guys, they were just lying and don't want to commend. I understand.

I used to study in Beijing, most students know but refuse to talk anyting about it.

[monoham1]

@fatpanda1000 just like i dont talk about the eureka stockade, even though yesterday 100 people were roughly arrested in melbourne

[monoham1]

@PeoplesGeneral apparently it was northerners who were chozen coz they didnt read the news so they would be impartial about shooting people

a jury authorised to use guns? shits fucked up in china but at least its not shit like russia... its like they swapped

[Wisefish99]

@fatpanda1000

This is true. If you're smart, you know better than to talk about it. Especially if it's going to be in Western media. You'd be jeopardizing your future.

[alfaxxl]

The reply that man makes at 7:17 sends shivers over my back. How true that is.

[drhowarddrfinedrhowa]

@501Christler Not necessarily. Most Japanese students are astoundingly ignorant about atrocities during World War II. It doesn't take that long for Thought Police to pull an Orwellian history erasure like this.

Judging from the rightwing slant of Yahoo's news feeds, it's all too believable that Yahoo used their technology to turn in the journalist mentioned. Cisco's arguments were similar to those made at the Nuremburg trials, they didn't hold up then and they shouldn't hold up now.

[501Christler]

This is rubbish, and I'll explain very clearly why. Of course those students know what that picture is -- you think they're going to talk about in front of a camera? It's Western journalistic crap of the worst kind. He's telling us what they're thinking. He has no idea.

[tychonaut]

@SlimeAmTheBest ...who called themselves proud communists. But if you are saying that a "true" communist country has never existed, then I would agree with you. But I am not sure there has ever been a "pure" capitalist democracy either.

[SlimeAmTheBest]

@jonathan102 You wrote a sociological grey area. Everyone is taught to believe the old adage that humans are naturally inclined in said behaviours competitively, and unto a collective sense it is therefore 'human nature'. This is a fallacy for the environmental conditioning factors are overlooked. The Soviet Union collapsed because it was economically blacklisted in system and unfortunately the happening tricked people into overthrowing. China is 'communist' on paper... the West needs it (ha!).

[SlimeAmTheBest]

@tychonaut The Soviets were a socialist republic.

[junior212417]

if I was there standing next to him id be like "screw this i just came to get some fireworks" and run away