New Image Discovered of the Tank Man in the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989

In a decade of iconic moments, the 1989 film footage of a solitary man standing in front of a column of Chinese tanks in Tiananmen Square, must surely rate at the very top. It was a moment when the world witnessed how strongly the desire for freedom can manifest itself in an individual. Now a new image has come to light captured by Terril Jones, showing that this act of selfless bravery was not a rash, spur of the moment decision, rather a pre-meditated and conscious desire to confront a totalitarian regime:

tank man tiananmen square

New Image found from Tiananmen Square (Look Closely)

At first glance the image could be from any Asian uprising in recent years in but looking more closely, you begin to see the subtle details. In the distant background to the right, the column of tanks rolling in, seems familiar. This draws your eye to the left of the tree where the solitary protestor is standing his ground. The image clearly shows there is some distance between him and the tanks, which as the film footage shows, were not traveling at high speed:

To this day, nobody has ever discovered who the lone man was, did he go back home to resume a normal life or was he seized by the authorities and subjected to a fate unknown? It’s perhaps ironic that the face of the Chinese uprising was never actually seen and the name of one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century will almost certainly never be known.

tiananmen square 1989

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4 responses to “New Image Discovered of the Tank Man in the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989”

  1. Celine says:

    This is kind of old news really :-) I posted this picture (with the 4 other iconic ones) on my personal blog 3 years ago for the 20th anniversary of the TianAnMen Rebellion on June 5th (http://cjsuiter-china.blogspot.com/2009/06/may-35th-or-viiixviiv.html) :-)

  2. Neila says:

    Why does this attract so much attention?
    In 2003 I watched as they boxed up the equipment (and my job at Motorola) and quite literally shipped it all off to China. So tell me: What did this man accomplish exactly?
    “Raise awareness” for the horrors of totalitarianism?

  3. M says:

    @Neila – This guy faced down a tank. He inspired many people at the time and continues to inspire today. Even if it didn’t lead to immediate regime change, he left his mark.

  4. Ellis Wyatt says:

    @Neila, how can you sit there and complain about losing a job while trash-talking someone who likely was executed – as in: murdered – after literally choosing to put his life on the line for his liberty; trash-talking the thousands of others who were gunned down in that protest for the “crime” of defying out-of-control Big Government; trash-talking the tens of millions more in that country who have lived lives as little more than Medieval serfs?

    Secondly, how can you be blind to the fact that the number one reason **why** American companies “ship their jobs overseas” is precisely because America’s own out-of-control government has created a tax and regulatory burden so massive that American businesses have no choice but to relocate to countries with cheaper operating costs?

    So you are simultaneously a.) blaming the victim of America’s ever-growing leviathan government – business – for the crimes of that government, and b.) blithely absolving those same out-of-control, power-drunk D.C. bureaucrats who’re strangling American business profitability and thereby killing American jobs by the truckload. Good going.

    Can you see the contemptible irony in your position here?

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No, my photos are the best, close this forever