This year marks the 37th anniversary of the “June Fourth” incident. The Epoch Times has exclusively obtained over two thousand previously unreleased historical photographs of the “June Fourth” incident, allowing those years that have been strenuously covered up and attempted to be erased by the Chinese Communist Party to see the light of day once again.
In the spring and summer of 1989, a student democracy movement that shocked the world ignited in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and quickly spread throughout China. Millions of students and civilians took to the streets to express their demands against corruption, and in pursuit of democracy and freedom in a peaceful and rational manner. However, the Communist Party leadership secretly mobilized a large number of regular troops and launched a comprehensive crackdown on civilians using tanks and machine guns in the early hours of June 4th. According to unofficial statistics, thousands to tens of thousands of people were shot dead by the CCP.
An official photographer who was present at the scene back then documented this history in its entirety, and the large amount of film he shot has been stored away for 37 years. In the final stages of his life, this elderly man entrusted these precious photos to The Epoch Times for public release, including both color and black-and-white images, totaling over 2000. Recently, the Chinese Communist authorities have been threatening and harassing individuals they believe are linked to these photos, including Chinese and American citizens.
For 37 years, the CCP has continued to cover up and suppress the truth of the incident, slandering the students’ peaceful demonstration as “counter-revolutionary turmoil” and long denying the fact that the military shot at civilians. However, history will not disappear due to censorship.
In order to fulfill the wishes of this elderly individual, The Epoch Times is for the first time gradually releasing these dormant “June Fourth” photos after 37 years, guiding readers back to that sorrowful historical scene, reminding the world not to forget the CCP’s bloody massacre of its own people. The CCP continues today to intensify its persecution and intimidation of innocent civilians, including threatening Epoch Times staff not to publish these photos.