Chinese State Media Editor: Man Blocking Lockdown Protester Like Tiananmen’s ‘Tank Man’

The editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday compared a U.S. medical worker in scrubs to the “Tank Man” of Tiananmen Square for standing in the path of anti-lockdown protesters.

That would make the anti-lockdown protesters the equivalent of the Chinese Communist Party, which arrested Tank Man and murdered hundreds of demonstrators to crush the Tiananmen uprising in 1989.

Global Times editor Hu Xijin demonstrated that people around the globe sometimes hit the Tweet button without thinking their posts all the way through:

The photo Hu fawned over was taken during a protest against the coronavirus lockdowns in Denver, Colorado, on Sunday. A small group of people dressed as healthcare workers stood in a crosswalk and blocked a large procession of cars driving around the state capitol to protest Colorado’s lockdown, currently scheduled to continue until at least May 1.

“Land of the free! Go to China if you want communism!” a woman in one of the cars shouted at one of the scrub-clad counter-demonstrators, an exchange Hu Xijin might have missed while eagerly trying to hammer the incident into something useful for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda.

“Tank Man,” the unknown and probably long-since-murdered individual Hu compared to the fellow in scrubs, was a lone man who stood against a line of Chinese tanks on June 5, 1989, armed with nothing but a pair of plastic shopping bags. His photo became an iconic symbol of resistance against tyranny, to the severe displeasure of the people Hu Xijin takes orders from. Tank Man himself was made to disappear, and the CCP spent the past 30 years trying to erase him from history.

Most subjects of the CCP are not allowed to talk about Tank Man or Tiananmen Square, and they face severe punishment for sharing the famous photo of his defiant act. 

For that matter, most subjects of the CCP are not allowed to use Twitter, the platform Hu used to insult the American people and President Donald Trump. An apparatchik like Hu would only be allowed to make an oblique reference to the savage horror of Tiananmen Square if Chinese people cannot see it. 

The coronavirus that caused lockdowns around the world, killing thousands of people and causing trillions of dollars in damage, came from China and was spread thanks to the secrecy and dishonesty of the CCP.