Photo Gallery Tiananmen Today
On June 4, 1989, Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing to break up pro-democracy demonstrations which had been going for months. Untold numbers of demonstrators lost their lives.
Here, a young woman is caught between civilians and Chinese soldiers on June 3, 1989. The soldiers were trying to remove her from an assembly near the Great Hall of the Poeple in Beijing.
Beijing's Tiananmen Square is filled with tourists and security personnel in anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the violent suppression of pro-democracy demonstrators on June 4, 1989.
Tens of thousands of uniformed and plainclothes officers are being deployed across the Chinese capital.
Paramilitary policemen and security officers keep watch over the square as the giant portrait of the late Mao Zedong peers down from Tiananmen Gate.
Red flags fly from the podium of the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking Tiananmen Square.
A plainclothes officer stands guard from his vantage point in the bushes at the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
Paramilitary policeman march across the square on the eve of the massacre's 20th anniversary.
China has a strong interest in suppressing the memories of the violent event and has cracked down on perceived trouble makers in the run-up to the anniversary.
On June 4, 1989, the Chinese military quelled a seven-week peaceful protest by killing countless pro-democracy activists and defenseless citizens.
Ding Zilin is a co-founder of the Tiananmen Mothers, a group which represents families of those who died in the 1989 crackdown. Her son Jiang Jielian was 17 when he was killed at the pro-democracy protests.
Wu'er Kaixi, now 41, is a Uighur who founded a protest group in China in April 1989. He now lives in Taiwan.
Many of the protestors were young people, including Zhang Xien Ling's son Wang Nan who was 19 when he died. He is believed to have been killed at Tiananmen Square during the bloodshed. His mother is a member of the informal Tiananmen Mothers group.
Qi Zhiyong lost his leg during the violence.
The Tiananmen Square protest marked a turning point for the nation. Pictured here are members of China's communist youth organization, the "Young Pioneers."
"Young Pioneers" joke around with a security guard -- a radically different scene from 20 years ago.
Silhouetted Chinese paramilitary policemen keep watch at one of the entrances to Tiananmen Square.
