Shocking! Tanks surround crisis-hit banks in China to scare protestors: Watch

Image Source: Reddit screengrab

New Delhi: In the midst of widespread demonstrations by bank depositors, the Chinese government, on Wednesday, sent tanks rumbling through the streets to intimidate Henan bank protesters – a move that has sent shockwaves across the world. In a video now viral on social media platforms, several Chinese Communist Party’s tanks can be seen protecting the crisis-hit lender. 

Local media claimed that there have been reports that tanks from the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) are on the streets defending Banks (Rizhao, Shandong Province).

The incident is reportedly related to the recent notification by the Bank of China's Henan branch, which said that customer funds are "investment items" and cannot be withdrawn. 

Army tanks hitting city roads serves as a sombre reminder of the terrible Tiananmen Square massacre that occurred on June 4, 1989, when the 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.

Meanwhile, 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.

On July 10, more than a thousand depositors gathered in front of the People's Bank of China branch in Zhengzhou to organise their biggest demonstration yet. Some bank depositors in Henan villages and towns were expected to receive their money back on July 15 in accordance with a notice from the Henan Provincial Financial Supervision Bureau.

Non-mainstream media, however, points out that only a tiny fraction of depositors have really paid these payments. Additionally, there has been no mention of the reimbursement in Chinese state media.