TLDR Corbis, the photography archive owned by Bill Gates that includes some of the most famous pictures ever made, has sold its image and licensing division to a Chinese company.

Corbis, based in Seattle, was founded by Mr. Gates in 1989 under the name Interactive Home Systems with a vision that people would one day decorate their homes with revolving digital displays of artwork. That did not happen, but over the years the company acquired an enormous library of images.

But it has been the transfer of images from the 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square, an event that China’s Communist Party has aggressively blotted out of public view ever since, that has perhaps raised the most alarm.

“It should not be treated as a surprise if a Chinese media company’s decisions and actions were aligned with the policies and practices of the Chinese government."