Tiananmen Square Massacre 20 Years Ago Today

These three pictures will pretty much sum up what happened that day 20 years ago today

The beginning of the protest started like this in April of 1989 with the gathering of chinese students and protesters laying wreaths in front of a portrait of former Chinese Communist Party leader and liberal reformer Hu Yaoban at the foot of the monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square during an unauthorized demonstration on 19 April 1989

This continued on into the next month, April, as things became a bit more tense while the crowds grew both size and unruliness, as is most always the case when tens of thousands of Chinese or otherwise gather together to protest almost any government but ours in one place like occurred at that time.

Here the Pro-democracy student protesters sit face to face with police outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square during that month in a stark contrast to what would occur a few weeks later

The climax of the protests came on June 4th 1989 when the armies were instructed to disperse the 100,000 strong contingent of pro democracy protesters who didn't wish to go very quietly, and that decision of bravery sadly resulted in many scenes resembling these two following pictures that angered the free world.

Then horrible scenes of death and destruction followed and were distributed around the shocked free world sans internet and cell phone quickness, mostly through the few news agency people and reporters on hand to witness and record the impending massacres of students and citizens at the hands of the Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA)

A sad day indeed for not the Chinese but democratic countries around the world who were for the most part powerless to come to the aid of the protesters much lesss mete out any meaningful international punishment for the actions of the Chinese government and it's soldiers

you can read and see the complete 30 picture slide show from which I gathered these pictures here at the Daily Telegraph and Wizbang for their desription of the full story.

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