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In the spring of democracy in 1989, hundreds of thousands of citizens demonstrated in China for weeks for more social and political freedoms. On June 4, 1989, the Chinese military bloodily suppressed the protests surrounding Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Hundreds of people are killed, some sources even speak of thousands of deaths.
The photo of the man in the white shirt with the two shopping bags goes around the world and still employs writers, filmmakers and historians. "Mr. Wang, the man who stood in front of the tanks" is the latest book by the Chinese exile author Liao Yiwu in German.
He writes: "On the morning of June 5, 1989, with blood flowing and the air crackling, he faced the tanks alone - a nobody, a man like you and me, stood in the middle of the wide Chang'an -Boulevards, in front of more than 18 type 59 tanks. The front tank tried to get past it, but he knew how to prevent it by jumping back and forth. "
This morning of June 5, Western journalists are being held at the Beijing Hotel due to martial law. Among them was the American photojournalist Jeff Widener from the AP news agency. From the balcony he wants to photograph the tank column on Chang'an Boulevard - then this man stands in front of the tanks.
Last year, Widener told the ARD : "I was waiting for the moment when they shot him. But nothing happened. Incredible - how can he stand there even though he is being shot? He doesn't care about his own safety at all."
The next morning his photo appears on dozens of front pages worldwide. The man in front of the tank became famous as "Tank Man" - and Jeff Widener for his iconic photo. "It was incredible, I knew that it was a good photo, but not such a sensation," said Widener.
But the main actor in the photo was and remains unknown. He was not one of the student leaders who had previously shaped the protest in China. His name is said to be Wang Weilin or Wang Guangyao. But his identity remains a mystery to this day. Whether he was hiding in 1989, emigrated or was executed: Nobody knows.
Last year, on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, the British television channel 4 produced a mini-series on Tank Man, title: Chimerica. The story: The journalist who took the photo at the time sets off 20 years later to decipher the identity of the Tank Man. Everything reminiscent of the Tank Man is censored on China's Internet today. Because it is a kind of cipher for Western values, the Chinese Communist Party tries to prevent any memory of him, the iconic photo and the 1989 massacre.
The only high-ranking politician who has ever commented on this is the former head of state and party leader Jiang Zemin, most recently in an interview with Mike Wallace from the American television station C-Span in 2000: "I have instructed people in the security authorities to use their entire networks to find out where this young man has gone. After a month-long investigation, I can safely say that this man was not arrested, "said Jiang Zemin.
The Tank Man remains a symbol of democratic resistance in China. But the mystery of his person remains unsolved. And offers space for wild speculation. Starting from the execution in a secret place to a secret crossing to Taiwan, where he is supposed to work as an archaeologist today.
