In the midst of widespread demonstrations in province by bank depositors seeking the release of frozen cash, tanks from the Chinese Communist Party rumbled through the streets on Wednesday to intimidate Henan bank protesters.
Local media claimed that there are rumours that tanks from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army are defending Banks (Rizhao, Shandong Province).
According to media reports, the event is related to Bank of China branch in Henan’s declaration that customer funds are “investment items” and cannot be withdrawn.
It serves as a sorrowful reminder of terrible Tiananmen Square massacre that occurred on June 4, 1989, when Chinese government dispatched tanks and highly armed troops to clear Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where student demonstrators had congregated for weeks to call for democracy and greater freedoms.
The crackdown is avoided in classroom and closely regulated in the media and online.
Despite assurances that depositors in China’s Henan villages would receive their frozen funds returned in instalments, the first of which was due on July 15, just a small number of depositors have received the reimbursements, raising severe doubts about the banks’ reserve funds.
Earlier on July 10, more than a thousand depositors gathered in front of the People’s Bank of China branch in Zhengzhou to conduct their biggest demonstration to yet.
Some bank depositors in Henan villages and towns were expected to receive their money returned on July 15 in accordance with a notification from the Henan Provincial Financial Supervision Bureau.
Non-mainstream media, however, assert that only a tiny minority of depositors have really paid these payments. Additionally, there has been no mention of the reimbursement in Chinese state media.
