I mean, if they did catch him, it’d make a whole lot of sense to remove any possibility of him further embarrassing the state by becoming a western propaganda mouthpiece, and you’ve got to remember this was a very extreme, near-existential crisis where radical measures were taken in response. Other leaders were also executed too, though after trials as far as I’m aware.
Not saying it happened, and we’ll never know either way, but it’s not a completely outlandish idea that the MSS would just off him had they found him.
There is nothing that suggests he was anything more than a random passer-by (as evidenced by the shopping bags he was carrying). And an elderly one at that. That means he was very likely not part of the student protests, and certainly not one of its leaders.
If the Chinese government was to arrest and punish someone it would be the leaders/instigators of the color revolution attempt. And they would not simply “disappear” them, they would make sure to put them on trial. That is much more effective at a) exposing them as traitors to the nation and agents of foreign powers, and b) dissuading others from associating with their movement.
Unfortunately, Western intelligence agencies smuggled most of the main leaders/instigators out of the country and subsequently gave them high paying jobs in the West. As for the “tank man”, there is no reason to assume that anything more happened to him than continuing to live his normal life. More than likely he was, as most elderly Chinese people are, extremely patriotic. We do not even know why he wanted to talk to the tank driver.
Please recognize that unfounded and baseless narratives constructed around that footage have been used by anti-China propagandists to drum up sinophobia and anti-communist sentiments. We do not need to be feeding into that with sensationalist speculation. Stick to what is factual and reasonable.
I mean, if they did catch him, it’d make a whole lot of sense to remove any possibility of him further embarrassing the state by becoming a western propaganda mouthpiece, and you’ve got to remember this was a very extreme, near-existential crisis where radical measures were taken in response. Other leaders were also executed too, though after trials as far as I’m aware.
Not saying it happened, and we’ll never know either way, but it’s not a completely outlandish idea that the MSS would just off him had they found him.
There is nothing that suggests he was anything more than a random passer-by (as evidenced by the shopping bags he was carrying). And an elderly one at that. That means he was very likely not part of the student protests, and certainly not one of its leaders.
If the Chinese government was to arrest and punish someone it would be the leaders/instigators of the color revolution attempt. And they would not simply “disappear” them, they would make sure to put them on trial. That is much more effective at a) exposing them as traitors to the nation and agents of foreign powers, and b) dissuading others from associating with their movement.
Unfortunately, Western intelligence agencies smuggled most of the main leaders/instigators out of the country and subsequently gave them high paying jobs in the West. As for the “tank man”, there is no reason to assume that anything more happened to him than continuing to live his normal life. More than likely he was, as most elderly Chinese people are, extremely patriotic. We do not even know why he wanted to talk to the tank driver.
Please recognize that unfounded and baseless narratives constructed around that footage have been used by anti-China propagandists to drum up sinophobia and anti-communist sentiments. We do not need to be feeding into that with sensationalist speculation. Stick to what is factual and reasonable.
Other leaders were not executed, because the US smuggled them out of country into the US where they live comfortably to this day.