Video Shows Tanks Protecting Crisis-Hit Banks In China, Internet Says “History Repeats Itself”

A video showing a tank lined up on the road in China has shocked the internet. Quoting local media outlets, users in Reddit said that the recording came from Rizhao, in Shandong and Tank’s provinces had been deployed to protect the local bank branches in the heart of the scandal. This problem first appeared in April when the South China Morning Post (SCMP), in an article, said that the population of Henan and Anhui Province was rejected access to a bank account because of the “Improvement of the System”.
Since then, bank deposits in Yuzhou Xinminsheng Village Bank, Shangcai Huimin County Bank, Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank and New Oriental Bank of Kaifeng in Henan Province and Guzhen Xinhuaihe Village Bank in the neighboring provinces of Anhui have been affected, SCMPP.

Video clips from Henan showed a long queue of tanks that prevented local residents from reaching bank branches. When the camera runs, the queue of the tank is seen covering the entire block.

Local residents look nervous but are forced to wait because of an armored vehicle. Reddit users compared scenes with the Tiananmen Square incident when in 1989, hundreds of tanks were used to destroy pro-democracy protests.

“Tiananmen Square 2: Electric Boogaloo,” commented a user. “Something … something … History repeated,” said another.

“I want to know what will happen if the tank operator cannot withdraw their money too,” commented the third user.

Local residents hit by a banking crisis, one of the worst in recent years in China, claimed that 40 billion Yuan (US $ 6 billion) in a deposit had been lost and had protested access to demand their savings.

They have been told to “wait patiently”, SCMP said in a report on Monday. Some people with less than 50,000 yuan (US $ 7,400) received their money last week but others are still waiting.

The Chinese authorities said that the banks at the controversy center were taken over by the Henan Xincaifu group through “internal and external collusion” and “illegally” withdrawing the depositors. Investigation of the banking scandal is ongoing.