Above, an alternate angle of the Tiananmen Square “Tank Man."  Amazing story

Above, an alternate angle of the Tiananmen Square “Tank Man."  Amazing story by journalist Terril Yue Jones (who took the photo) about what it was like to report from Tiananmen Square in 1989. An excerpt: A day after the People’s Liberation Army stormed into central Beijing on June 4, 1989 and retook Tiananmen Square from protesters who had occupied the vast plaza for much of the previous six weeks, I stood outside the Beijing Hotel just east of the Square. A frightening pall had settled over Beijing, broken almost hourly by cacophonous volleys from soldiers’ automatic weapons, often aimed at the crowds of onlookers. People would scatter, but some were hit and quickly carted away by flatbed tricycles. Inevitably, the pressing internal Chinese drive of kan renao, or checking out what is going on, would overcome them and they would return to gawk at the soldiers and hardware that had rolled through their city. At one point, tank engines could be heard approaching from the Square. Gunfire emanated again, and people fled away from the boulevard. I saw people running and tanks approaching. I lifted my camera, took one photo and scampered away myself. Only months later did I discover that I had captured an alternate view of one of the most dramatic moments of those weeks: the man with the shopping bags who stopped a line of tanks, which many saw as standing up to dictatorial rule. He came to be called the “Tank Man.” More from WQ here. -- source link

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