QZ: So do you think that without the crackdown and loss of political legitimacy, China wouldn’t have been as ambitious about economic reform and development? And the government made a pact with the elite population in China: ‘We know we don’t have political legitimacy, but allow us to achieve economic legitimacy. So Deng had to use his personal charisma-he launched his Southern Tour soon after-to launch nationalism, government-centered patriotism and macroeconomic reform. QZ: How does the youth of today compare with that of your generation?īut when you think about the Chinese miracle, there’s a very interesting period that was very conveniently forgotten: a period of stagnation in the economy from the summer of 1989 to 1992. had succeeded so thoroughly that they suffocated not only civil liberties, but economic development.

It’s similar to movements after ours: Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and also Occupy Wall Street, which changed national dialogue. Such a large scale protest can not only can happen, but it happened from within. ’89 established a firm and visible nonviolent principle. TS: 1989 and the June 4th massacre symbolize the continual struggle throughout modern history- can an ancient civilization and culture and polity transform itself with only military, or technology, or economic advances or can it take a more humanistic approach with balanced development that includes civil liberties, democratic institutions. QZ: Why is the legacy of Tiananmen important today? Even though we can’t discuss it and have different opinions, those collective memories can’t be killed. I’ve seen time again, both inside and outside China that an apathetic general population develops fervor for change very quickly. But I stopped worrying about it five years ago. I spent a lot of time going around giving campus speeches, writing in English and Chinese, all of that to keep the memory alive because I was so worried that such powerful systemic lies would put such a legacy away. “It has the responsibility to be transparent about the truth not only about the Tank Man, but the whole truth about the Tiananmen incident.ST: For years, I worried about this. “Only the Chinese regime knows what became of him,” Mr.

Yang described Tank Man as a “symbolic, final act of defiance, the last tragic gesture” in the Tiananmen protests. Yang Jianli, a Tiananmen protester who is now a rights activist based in the United States, has circulated a petition recently calling on President Xi Jinping to disclose what happened to Tank Man. The police and the city of Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the man’s identity and whereabouts. Former President Jiang Zemin suggested in an interview in 1990 that he had not been killed. Others have argued he might have been saved and could be in hiding. Some believe that he was most certainly executed in the days following his act of disobedience. The fate of Tank Man has been a subject of wide debate. “Everyone would think if they have the same courage to resist when they learn the story of Tank Man,” she said.

In a separate question, about one in six Chinese respondents correctly identified the protests at Tiananmen Square as the backdrop for the photo. Chinese propaganda officials once used the image of Tank Man to defend the government’s handling of the protests, arguing that the military had shown restraint by not killing him.īut more recently, the government has worked to eliminate the memory of Tank Man, censoring images of him online and punishing those who have evoked him.Ī court convicted four men in southwestern China this year for selling bottles of liquor that referenced him, alongside the words, “Never forget, never give up.”Īs a result of the government’s campaign, many people in China, especially younger Chinese, do not recognize his image.Ī recent survey of 239 internet users in China by Rutger van der Hoeven, a lecturer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, found that 37 percent of respondents said they recognized a photo of Tank Man, compared with 49 percent on average across the globe.

Tiananmen square aftermath