Photos of the Tiananmen Square Protests Through the Lens of a Student Witness

'At a hospital, he said, he saw people who had been shot dead, their shoulders shattered and heads smashed. He put his camera away out of a sense of respect.

“Taking those photos is too disrespectful to them,” he said, referring to people whose bodies had been mutilated. “I took photos of people whose bodies could still be considered complete.'"

I'm without words. It's insane that a government would do this to its own people. It's so far outside of my own experience that it feels impossible. You'd think they would openly acknowledge it as a mistake from another time and move on but no.

I wonder if they would be able to carry out another massacre but this time successfully prevent the world from ever knowing.

Nope.

But they'd disappear the dwindling people that still have the courage (in the face of almost certain death) who shared the story on WeChat etc shortly afterward.

Story from the perspective of the soldiers is more interesting and not overly simplistic. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/world/asia/tiananmen-squa...