this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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If that were the case, chinese authorities would deminish the event by always citing this picture and saying it was staged. They aren't - they say it never happened - which is well documented and simply false. So whenever an authotarian regime doesn't pick up on something that is useful to them - it is untrue and would be easily disproven were there the need for it.
Unless the Chinese are patient and strategic. They need to sway the masses when the opinions of the people count. The bad reputation was no obstacle to people buying from China.
The image is still bad because it is linked to whatever happened on the square. If they point out that it is false, people will ask what happened. If they say nothing, people remember this image.
It's the opposite. The negativity of the picture comes from wild associations.
Tanks breaking for a civilian and soldiers not reacting with violence is in itself good.
Tankman was a huge propaganda win for the west. However upholding it in times of wikipedia is silly if the tanks were leaving. The man is not trying to prevent students from being crushed. What's the message now?
To clarify, I don't think that killing the protesters on the square was acceptable.
Then why are you committing so hard to this silly conspiracy? The point of the conspiracy is definitely to make China look better. It's one of the weakest conspiracies I've ever seen. Why push it?
The spreading of the picture makes China look better. I originally thought the man was trying to protect students, showing heartless soldiers. But he is talking to leaving soldiers.
If the picture is Chinese propaganda and staged, it stresses that the cruelty on the square was so big that this distraction was necessary.
If it is authentic then what do we see? Soldiers who respect the life of a protester.
Edit: Read NeilBrü@lemmy.world's comment above.
You don't condone the murder but you condone the cover up of the murder?
Edit: dumb
I don't condone the murder.
Yeah I swapped condone and condemn because I'm dumb
The journalist argues that the picture is a cover up. I don't condone it, I point it out.
Read NeilBrü@lemmy.world’s comment!