Many sources say that the young man's name was Wang Weilin. It is not
known for certain what became of him, but some believe that he was
executed by Jiang Zemin:
"...newspaper and other media reports have claimed him to be 19 year
old Wang Weilin. It has also been reported that days after making his
place in history he was summarily tried and executed." from Death In
Beijing by Amnesty International isbn 0862101743"
Tiananmen Square Demonstrations and Massacre - Forum
http://pub5.bravenet.com/forum/395236120/fetch/69679/
"It was hard to tell how much of the news was fact and how much was
rumor. On June 8th she read two short blurbs in the South China
Morning Post that she prayed were rumor. One said Wang Weilin, the man
she'd seen hold up the convoy of tanks in front of the Beijing Hotel,
was 'presumed' to be dead."
Personal Pages of Matt Donath: A Few Flies Get Out
http://www.geocities.com/mdonath/fewflies/fewflies7new.html
"Wang Weilin, the young man who stopped the tanks in Tiananmen Square,
has disappeared from sight, though not from history. China's president
Jiang Zemin said the police had checked morgues, prisons and computer
registers, but were unable to find any trace of him...
And the young man whom history will always remember for stopping the
tanks, creating perhaps this century's most powerful image of peaceful
protest? 'He didn't get shot,' said Premier Zhu Rongji when asked
about it recently, missing the point entirely.
The optimistic view is that Wang Weilin's friends whisked him to
anonymous safety, where he remains to this day. There is a darker
theory that he was picked up soon afterwards and executed or jailed
for life. But Beijing will never, ever, dare to admit to that."
Guardian Unlimited: The price of dissent
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Tiananmen/Story/0,2763,206052,00.html
"Wang Weilin is the person who blocked a column of tanks in Beijing
after the June 4th massacre, at the age of 19. He has not been seen
since his detention on 6/5/89."
Silicon Valley for Democracy in China: Dissidents' Information Page
http://www.svdc.org/dissidents.html
"A small, solitary figure in slacks and a white shirt stood up to a
column of 17 tanks heading to Beijing?s Tiananmen Square on June 5,
1989. The previous day?s massacre had killed 155 Chinese students
camped in the square and wounded some 65 workers, students and
children.
As the first enormous tank swerved right to miss the young man, later
identified as 19-year-old student Wang Weilin, the boy moved right to
block the lead tank. When the powerful machine next turned left, Wang
moved left, too. Finally he climbed up onto the tank and reportedly
said to the driver, 'Why are you here? My city is in chaos because of
you.'
Newspapers around the world declared that one lone 'Everyman' had
defiantly stood up to the People?s Republic of China and its massive
arsenal of weapons to become a symbol of Chinese freedom. When newsmen
asked Chinese leader Jiang Zemin a year later what had happened to the
young man, Jiang replied, with some uncertainty, that Wang had not
been killed."
The Sierra Times: La Raza as Palestinians
http://www.sierratimes.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/printpage.cgi?forum=23&topic=28
"Furthermore, Jiang gave a secret order to execute Wang Weilin, the
hero who stopped a tank with his thin, frail body--an act of heroism,
the photograph of which the world still recalls to this day."
Falun Dafa Clear Wisdom: Dictator Jiang - An Empty Shell
http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/9/27/26935.html
It should be noted that some sources say that "Wang Weilin" was a false name:
"The most memorable images are of a young man, carrying what appears
to be a shopping bag, who refused to move out of the way of the
advancing tanks.
He then climbed onto the leading tank and spoke to the driver.
The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Movement in
China says it has obtained official documents that show the Chinese
government does not know what happened to him.
Although the man was initially identified as Wang Weilin, the
documents suggest the name was false.
In response to an inquiry, President Jiang Zemin is said to have
blamed journalists for giving authorities the wrong name. The Chinese
government gave up looking for the man after checking lists of the
dead and imprisoned."
BBC News: Tiananmen 'tank man' still at large
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/75679.stm
Google Web Search: "tiananmen square" + "wang weilin"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22tiananmen+square%22+%22wang+weilin
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