You have this one photo, onto which you project a lifetime of cold war propaganda.

It may surprise you to learn that tank man was standing in the way of tanks leaving the square and going back to base. After climbing on to the tank and talking with the crew, he eventually left the area with some other civilians.
Video of exactly that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq8zFLIftGk

• The Tian’anmen Square ‘Massacre’: The West’s Most Persuasive, Most Pervasive Lie.
• Columbia Journalism Review: The Myth of Tiananmen
• 1989 Tian'anmen Square riots
• A Note on the Tiananmen Protests
• Images from Tiananmen 1989 the West never shows (NSFW / CW: violence and death)
• How psy-ops warriors fooled me about Tiananmen Square: a warning