Michael Leunig, cartoonist, has been widely criticised after posting a cartoon comparing COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the Tiananmen Square massacre. The reference for Leunig’s picture is the infamous ‘Tiananmen Square tank man’, an unidentified man who faced down tanks leaving Tiananmen Square in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Many of Leunig’s critics have pointed out the sheer insensitivity of comparing lifesaving vaccines to a brutal act of violence. In one powerful Twitter thread, writer Elizabeth Flux wrote, “what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989 was a massacre. Its been coming for a while but its time for me and Leunig to part ways…i think he has moved from ironic and insightful to bitter and boring #auspol pic.twitter.com/4r7ormSu1l — Richard Denniss (@RDNS_TAI) September 27, 2021This Leunig cartoon is grotesquely offensive.