It’s worth watching the full video, “tank man” leaves unharmed. He climbs onto the tank, talks to the crew, then some bystanders come and he leaves with him. This image, of lone man standing in defiance of the PLA, is deliberately framed as one man who spent his final moments in rebellion. However, this isn’t true, of course, it just so happened to be cinematically convenient for the tool of propagandizing. This is a microcosm of how the west over-emphasizes zoomed-in context for entire events, and erases the historical buildup and real material conditions.

The stance of those who uphold the PRC, and Marxists in general, on Tian’anmen is that hundreds of protestors and PLA officers were killed in Beijing that day as the PLA advanced towards the square, but that the square itself was evacuated peacefully, which matches leaked US cables and the CPC’s official stance on what it calls the “June 4th incident”. This is a rejection of the commonly reported story of 10,000 people being killed on the square itself, which originated from a British diplomat’s cable. Said diplomat was later confirmed to have evacuated well before.

Western nations intentionally sensationalize the quantity of deaths and the character of the events. This is also why Western Nations don’t frequently report on the South Korean Gwang-Ju massacre that occured around the same era, where the South Korean millitary murdered thousands of High School and College students protesting against Chun Do-Hwan’s dictatorship. All of what I said is backed up by the Wikipedia page for Tian’anmen Square Protests and Massacre, such as Alan Donald revising his estimate from 10,000 to the low thousands yet BBC continuing to report the 10,000 figure:

In a disputed cable sent in the aftermath of the events at Tiananmen, British Ambassador Alan Donald initially claimed, based on information from a “good friend” in the State Council of China, that a minimum of 10,000 civilians died,[237] claims which were repeated in a speech by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke,[238] but which is an estimated number much higher than other sources provided.[239][240] After the declassification, former student protest leader Feng Congde pointed out that Donald later revised his estimate to 2,700–3,400 deaths, a number closer to, but still much higher than, other estimates.[241]

When investigating the class character of the origin of the protests, we find that it was originally a left-wing protest from Maoists (largely workers and peasants) that opposed Reform and Opening Up, before being hijacked by right-wing students that wanted to see an end to socialism and a replacement with capitalism entirely. The student leaders of the protest admitted to wanting to start a massacre in order to garner support:

Earlier that afternoon, we had heard a very provocative speech on a loudspeaker by a so-called “autonomous workers’ union” calling for violence against troops: “Don’t let any soldiers escape! Kill them all!”

-Account from Gene Sharp

The students keep asking, “What should we do next? What can we accomplish?” I feel so sad, because how can I tell them that what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed, for the moment when the government has no choice but to brazenly butcher the people. Only when the Square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes. Only then will they really be united. But how can I explain any of this to my fellow students?

(Are you going to stay in the Square yourself?)

No, I won’t. Because my situation is different. My name is on the government’s hit list. I’m not going to let myself be destroyed by this government. I want to live.

-Interview with Chai Ling, one of the leaders of the student protests

And were later evacuated from China, where many of them went on to join right wing organizations and collect good paychecks for propagandizing. I recommend reading Another View of Tian’anmen by Sun Feiyang. What kicked off the crackdown was rioters lynching unarmed PLA officers and burning them alive in their vehicles, it was deliberately steered in such a direction by bad actors.

As a side-note, the quote you picked is ironic, in that it was a protest against Deng Xiaoping, not Mao nor the Gang of Four.

To the authie hexchud whomst I can’t see