The Epoch Times publishes 2,000+ never-before-seen 1989 Tiananmen Square photos

NEW YORK — Last Thursday, The Epoch Times — an independent media organization — released a tranche of more than 2,000 never-before-seen photographs documenting the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement in Beijing. For decades, film rolls containing thousands of photos have been kept in a metal box, never known to the world, and The Epoch Times has made them public for the first time ever. The photo release marked the 37th anniversary of the June 4th massacre.

The Epoch Times released the photos alongside an article written by award-winning journalist Eva Fu, whose reporting can be accessed here.

Taken by a Chinese state media photographer, the thousands of photos on film rolls survived the ensuing political purge campaigns after the Tiananmen Square massacre, eventually making their way to the United States. Recently entrusted to The Epoch Times, the photos have since been fully scanned and digitized, providing a glimpse of those fleeting weeks in the spring of 1989 when hope hung thick in the air and a hint of freedom seemed so close at hand — until the gunfire proved otherwise. Among other scenes, the photos show Chinese regime tanks gearing up in an offensive position, pro-democracy protesters standing in their way, and the bullet holes that were left behind.

Chinese authorities have subsequently threatened the photographer’s family to stop The Epoch Times from publishing the photos. Thousands of students are estimated to have died on June 4, 1989, at the hands of the Chinese communist regime. Communist authorities — framing a peaceful student-led movement as a riot disrupting social order — subsequently hunted down participants nationwide and instituted systematic ideological re-education to erase from history all but their own version of events.

“On the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, we are honored and humbled by the opportunity to show these powerful images to the world,” said Hadas Slonim, senior marketing director at The Epoch Times. “Pictures are worth a thousand words, and we have thousands of photos that tell the story of the Chinese Communist Party’s heinous acts against thousands of innocent civilians, whose only ‘crime’ was wanting to be free. Despite the Chinese regime’s repressive actions that continue today, the memory of those brave freedom champions will live on, and we will do our very best to keep it alive and well for generations to come.”

About The Epoch Times:

Founded in 2000, The Epoch Times is one of the fastest-growing independent media organizations in the United States. Internationally, the company publishes in 22 languages across 35 countries. The Epoch Times has received numerous awards for its reporting and design, including from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society for News Design, and the New York Press Association.