AP Photo by Jeff Widener
This picture will be forever etched in people’s minds. It was a powerful statement made by an unknown person, who stood up against the tanks that rolled into Tiananmen Square in Beijing to dismantle the pro-democracy gatherings.
Tiananmen Square was known as the epicenter of the student-led movement back in 1989. Twenty years ago on June 4th, the Chinese military came in and crushed the revolution by killing students and activists. Even until this day, the accurate number of people who died in the massacre is still unknown.
In fact, the Chinese government has such a tight control of information flowing through the internet about the Tiananmen Square massacre that there are many in China who have no clue about what happened in that day in history. If a person was to type in words like “Tiananmen” or “Tibet” they will be tracked. It is not uncommon for various sites such as YouTube and news outlets to be routinely blocked.
This is why it should come as no shock that earlier this week the Chinese government blocked access to Twitter and even Flickr to control what is being expressed about Tiananmen Square on the 20th anniversary.
A good reminder for me in light of all this is that the college students stoked the fire for the revolution. There is something about college students all through history that radically made a difference in history due to their idealism and their courage. Oh, how I long for something great to happen in our generation with college students, who have decided to live radically for Jesus Christ.
Here is a video of the unknown person who took a stand:
Check out the incredible story about how the famous Tiananmen Square picture was taken. Click here.