June 3 1989 - Beijing ...
After being beaten by soldiers in front of the Great Hall of the People, this man staggers forward trying to find help for his wounds.
I'm not sure how to comment on this picture. It sums up for me all of what happened from this point forward - a bloody unarmed man surrounded by soldiers.
This was literally the first blood of the Beijing crackdown. The students, who had been pretty disciplined about maintaing a non-violent approach, were shocked. As that day 20 years ago wore on, more and more people were either beaten or struck by rocks thrown by soldiers. Injuries mounted but even so, the idea that in a few hours fresh groups of troops would move into the city and unleash their firepower directly into crowds of civilians seemed far fetched. It wasn't.
I just learned Twitter, Facebook and perhaps even this blog are being blocked in China. The reason is that this image, and others like it, undermine an official but false image of Chinese history.
This is part of a series that began here:
http://open.salon.com/blog/ed_nachtrieb/2009/05/11/history_is_real
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Bob Eckstein
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