A lone, unidentified man in a white shirt clutching bags stares down a convoy of tanks.
It’s a photograph that has been burned onto the brains of everyone who has laid eyes on it since it was taken exactly 35 years ago today.
It was on this date in 1989 that Chinese troops and tanks forcibly dispersed peaceful protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, brutally quelling huge, weeks-long demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms.
The disturbing level of violence that followed left the world shocked. Decades on, any mention in China of the protests is still met with strict censorship.
Nobody knows how many people died during the brutal crackdown. It’s often said hundreds or possibly over 1000 people were killed at the hands of…
