30 years ago a Chinese tank column stopped for 'Tank Man'; others not so lucky
BEIJING - Everyone remembers China's "Tank Man," who stood with bags in his hands, blocking a line of tanks withdrawing from Tiananmen Square a day after the fatal June 4, 1989, military crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.
Thirty years later, Fang Zheng wonders why the tanks stopped for that man, but rolled right over him as he and other students soberly retreated west along Chang'an Avenue after leaving Tiananmen Square in the early hours of that fateful day.
He remembers his trouser leg getting trapped in the tank's caterpillar track and the feeling of being dragged along the ground before he managed to wrench himself free. He remembers looking at the mangled bone and blood of his crushed legs.
"I just want to know the truth," he said in a recent interview.
For survivors like Fang, the pain and trauma of the day the Chinese army turned on its own citizens is
