The Tank Man

Tuesday July 12th

Today I watched a PBS documentary about 'the tank man", the famous, anonymous Chinese man who stood in front of military tanks during the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989.

The Tank Man, also known as the Unknown Rebel, stood up to the tanks 23 years ago last week, June 5th. I had seen the photo before and knew a little about the situation but decided to use the anniversary as a good reason to learn more. 

The Frontline episode explores a few different things. It mainly focuses on what the riots of Tienanmen Square were about. The Chinese people were protesting a lack of basic civil liberties their government was withholding from them. The protests had been going on since May, but turned dangerous when the government sent in the military to run them off. Reporters and protesters interviewed for the doc. talk about how the soldiers were shooting wildly in all directions, even into buildings and apartments nearby. They were using military-grade weapons, not rubber bullets or tear gas. It was weapons used to inflict the most amount of damage possible. The Chinese Red Cross would eventually state that 2,600 civilians were killed altogether. The Chinese government's records show only 241 deaths total. 

Somewhere in the middle of these events a row of tanks begins rumbling into the square. As they creep forward a man walking down the street races in front of the tanks and refuses to move. The tanks come to a halt for a brief moment. 

The event itself only lasts a few minutes, but it's so tense it feels like forever. Eventually a group of strangers pick the guy up and drag him off to safety. The man was never identified, never charged, and to this day his motives remain a mystery. 

The doc then turns to China as a whole, discussing how much has changed for the country in the last 20 years. The rise of capitalism, the growth of business, and the welcoming of consumerism by the Chinese people. It details in turn what the country has going for it (economic growth, GDP) and where it is still in dire trouble (income inequality, civil liberties). 

We return to the idea of The Tank Man- a simple middle class citizen, probably a blue collar worker. What would he think about modern China, and the changes that have occurred? 

I was happy with this documentary. It gave me the information I had originally wanted (about the Tank Man) but then offered me what I didn't even know I wanted to hear (about China). It did a great job of tying the themes together and using a narrative throughout. 

There's too much about this film to dive into all of it fully, so here are just some random thoughts:

The protests reminded me of the Occupy Wall Street movement in that both were started by the upper-to-middle class college educated crowd, but were geared towards and eventually picked up by the working class. Tienanmen protesters were fighting for everyone's rights; workers, govt employees, even the military and the police that were threatening them.

In a discussion about civil liberties the role of American companies in China was brought up. What role does  Google and Yahoo have in protecting freedom of speech abroad? They both gave in to the Chinese Govt. and allowed their search engines to be censored, and faced harsh criticism for it. Should they have done that? 

 What was going through that man's head as he defied the tanks? What possesses a person to do something so bold and, to be perfectly frank, stupid? He, like the rest of the world, had just watched the military lay siege upon the innocent protesters and bystanders- he must have known it was a suicide mission? Were his views so steadfast that he was ready to give up his life for them?

You can watch the documentary here

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