Freedom | June 05, 2009 | 4 comments

The Tank Man.

source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbR0R-0Jxjo&feature=channel_page

freeforall2008
Twenty years ago he was the ultimate symbol of a peaceful democratic protest that went terribly, fatally wrong: a lone Chinese man in a simple white button-down shirt, carrying two plastic shopping bags, staring down a column of tanks.

"Who was he? He was Edmond Dantes. And he was my father and my mother... my brother... my friend. He was you... and me. He was all of us."

Be A Hero!
  1. groups:
    Freedom
  2. tags:
    China,  Freedom,  Tiananmen Square,  1989,  3 more
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4 comments // The Tank Man. // Video

  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  

    • Like most people who saw that clip, I was deeply moved by his courage. Given the number of people who were murdered by the regime and the number who were subsequently imprisoned and brutally tortured, the fact that he was not cut down right on the spot is rather amazing. The quality of the video does not lead me to believe that the tank crews were necessarily aware that the engagement was being videotaped.

      But I guess I have always drawn a more sinister conclusion from the fact that I never saw the guy identified at that time or at any time since then. As we have seen from writings since then, the guy clearly embarassed and infuriated a number of China's top leaders that day and in the days and weeks that followed.

      Had he escaped the manhunt that went out for him, I would have to think that the movement would have found a way to identify him and to either get him out of the country or at least onto the Internet as a heroic figure to keep the students and others energized. Unless he was discovered, and I just didn't hear about it, I fear that he has been locked away in some obscure rural prison camp or, more likely, executed...

    • 2 years ago
  • thorstein
  • Zurama
  • Zurama
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