Tank Man

The documentary 'The tank man' recorded the Tiananmen Square event by videos and interviews with people in the square that night. However, the article The Truth about the Beijing Turmoil holds an opposite and more credible account of what actually happened.

This turmoil did not occur by chance. This was political chaos, which was motivated, by a minority number who were eyeing the political seats in Beijing. It was carefully planned for a few years with the aim of sabotaging the socialist People's Republic. They capitalized on the failures of the Chinese government together with the economic difficulties. They spread rumors which were not in favor of the Constitution and management of the People's Government. This made a significant preparation ground for the turmoil ideology, managerially and the civic opinion (Baum, 154).

The media also played a crucial role, mainly the Voice of America, made-up rumors, which misguided the, people into creating the chaos in the country. Zhao Ziyang, who was an earlier leader of a key political party, gave support to the turmoil and, therefore, played a large part in the formation of the turmoil. There was also a student unrest which the organizers of the chaos exploited. There were posters which were put up in the various colleges which were inciting for remove from power of the legal government made up of the Communist party (Baum, 184).

They students held multiple rallies, made hate speeches, skipped classes and organized protests all which were illegal. They then took control of the Tiananmen Square by force and on many junctures planned various unlawful meetings without registration for authorization. In some cities, people started engaging in unlawful activities such as raiding, burning stores down and even broke into provincial government compound seats and torching their motor vehicles on the spot (Berry, 44).

The government warned the students not to be used by malicious people, and instead solve their problems through discussions or by, normal, lawful, procedures. Students went on a hunger strike with over 3000 citizens and lasted for seven days. The government and party leaders went to visit the fasting students at the Square and met with student’s leaders in an attempt to stop the hunger strike (Berry, 44). The government organized rescue teams, which tried, to ease the distress of the fasting learners. Luckily, no student lost their lives in the hunger strike but this was unsuccessful in winning active response.

On May 19, a team of government leaders met in Beijing. At the meeting, the president of the republic of China announced the conclusion to adopt firm measures to stop the chaos. Zhao Ziyang skipped this crucial meeting (Berry, 44). On the following day, the president then, Li Peng, signed a military order, as per the Constitution of the country. This military law was to be imposed on the exact day at 10 a.m.

The malicious people panicked and misled the citizen, who were unaware of the new law, to barricade crucial crossroads to stop the military troops from gaining access to selected places according to plan. This showed how such people were determined to force the legal government out of power. The military law troops were then made to move in by force to suppress the antigovernment rebels.

On the third of June, the Beijing civic government and the command center of the military law enforcement soldiers issued a curfew, asking the general public to keep off the roads and stay indoors (Cole, 11).  The message was broadcasted repeatedly. At around ten p.m. in the evening, the matched into Beijing from different directions.

The rioters took advantage of the military limits and blocked armed forces and other kinds of motor vehicles before torching them into flames. They added insult into injury by seizing guns, ammo and radio communication devices. The rioters then used these weapons and fired artillery driving around the streets (Cole, 11).

The rebels then battered civilian installations and community structures. Several rebels even drove a civic bus full of petrol barrels towards the Tiananmen entrance tower in an effort to set it on fire. At the same time, rioters savagely beat up, kidnapped and killed soldiers and officers (Chen, 2). A military vehicle unexpectedly broke down, and the rebels surrounded it and viciously trod the driver with stones. This chaos led to the death of several soldiers in the city. In one instance, a soldier's body was found hung heel over the head on a bus that had been torched, after he had been brutally killed.

Over two thousand vehicles were burnt up or smashed in the revolt, which included over one thousand armed forces trucks, over sixty toughened cars, over thirty police force cars, over one hundred and twenty civic buses and trolley cars and seventy private motor vehicles of different kinds (Ghosh, 3).  More than six thousand military troops and police force were wounded and scores of them slated.

These were profound and eloquent testimonies to the restraint and lenience shown by the military law enforcement groups. They did this in fear of harming city dwellers by mishap. They preferred enduring disgrace and meet their demise courageously, although they were well armed. This is a clear act of bravery clearly shows that no other soldiers on the planet that can implement such restraint to such a degree. (Grimes, 10).

The military law troops suffered heavy fatalities were driven beyond restraint, to fire blindly into the air to pave the way ahead. During this defense strategy, some rebels were murdered; some crowd were battered by stray shots and some injured or killed by hooligans carrying weapons (Lin, 45). Reliable information showed, more than three thousand members of the public were injured and over two hundred and fifty, which includes 36 university learners, were killed.

On the fourth of the sixth month of the year, the Beijing metropolitan government and the military law headquarters issued a crisis notice directing all scholars and the general public to go away from Tiananmen Square with immediate effect. The notice was transmitted continually for several hours to make sure the public got the message. The students at the square discussed among themselves and sent their council to the military to expressing their readiness to pull out from the square which was approved by the troops (Ogden, 45).

They then left at about 5 a.m. the following morning in an organized manner through a broad passage in the southeastern division of the square left by the soldiers, carrying their possessions including posters and flags. The resilient students were made to leave forcibly by the armed forces. This clearing operation only took half an hour to complete.

Not a single soul was lost during the whole eviction process. The assertions that the square was in a bloodbath and thousands of civilians were killed are pure rumors, and the truth of what happened will finally be clear to the public (Ogden, 45).  After the important success, in quelling the uprising, order in the city was essentially brought back to normal and the state of affairs throughout China soon stabilized. The procedures taken by the government to quell the chaos and put down the revolt has won the approval and support of the Chinese populace. It has also won the support of the regimes and citizens of many other states in the world.