FREEDOM 4 CHINA | HEROES COME IN ALL SIZES

Tiananmen Square Tank Man: A Real Hero

Tank Man’s names is not known, nor is his fate.

Tank Man was filmed in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, stepping in front of a column of 59 tanks. The day before, the Peoples’s Liberation Army crushed student-led, pro-democracy protests. The death toll is estimated from several hundred to several thousand.

The footage of the Tank Man is widely regarded as one of the most iconic photographic images of all time. Yet, it is censored on the internet in China, and most young Chinese have never seen it.

Even though we do not know his name, we can take inspiration from his courage and willingness to sacrifice for a cause larger than himself. The Tank Man legacy will outlast that of any pampered millionaire athlete playing in a taxpayer-supported arena.

About Freedom4China

China is the world’s worst human rights abuser and greatest threat to world peace through its military buildup and increasingly imperial ambitions.

Freedom4China is a campaign to raise awareness in the West about the struggles of the Chinese people as the Communist Party of China tightens the vice on Hong Kong and builds a “digital dictatorship” on the mainland with the help of Western capital and technology.

Ironically, some of the most influential capitalist institutions in the United States, whether it be Apple, BlackRock, Nike or the NBA, are so compromised by the pursuit of profits in China that they are unwilling or unable to defend individual rights, democratic values or basic human decency.

NBA teams are owned by billionaires who do not defend the system or values that allowed them to become wealthy.

Instead, they are manipulated by political activists who condemn this country and its history. All the while, the NBA is a business partner with entities in China that are either owned or controlled by the Communist Party.

The Communist Party has ruled China since 1949. From its founding in 1921, it has been the vehicle for terror and murder on a previously unknown scale. Mao Zedong’s death toll rivaled or exceeded those of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, but unlike Nazi Germany, Mao’s armies were never defeated, and unlike Soviet Russia, the Party never lost control.

Through the Freedom4China campaign, we seek to directly confront the hypocrisy of billionaire owners and millionaire players. Freedom4China is a project of the National Legal and Policy Center, a 501(c)(3) organization promoting ethics in public life.