Website commemorates June 4th.
On the sixth of March, 1989, an organization called China News Digest International, Inc. (CND) was established in the state of Maryland. The company’s website states the following:
China News Digest International, Inc. (CND) is a IRS-determined 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the State of Maryland, United States. CND publications, including the first-ever online Chinese magazine, Hua Xia Wen Zhai (HXWZ), can be accessed free of charge. CND is independent of any other organizations and strives to be impartial on the issues and news it reports. (English translation of the original Chinese)
CND website
http://hx.cnd.org/about-cnd/
On March 6th, 1999, CND marked its ten-year anniversary with a special issue. It contained a letter from the then Editor-in-Chief, Bo Xiong, in which he answered the question “What is CND?” He states:
CND is a volunteer news organization operating on the internet to disseminate news aboiut China.
The world is no longer what it was, the internet is no longer what it was and the free services provided by CND are greatly expanded.
CND maintains its voluntary and non-profit nature of the organization, continues to aim at providing news and other information services to readers who are concerned primarily about China-related affairs, remains independent and strives to be impartial on issues and news it reports.
Bo Xiong, Editor-in-Chief
http://www.cnd.org/CNDhistory.html
In the People’s Republic of China news is very strictly controlled and censored, such that Chinese citizens only get whatever information that the government allows them to have. In a society where harmony is paramount, controlling the message is essential and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will go to great lengths to see to it that this happens.
What CND offered its readers instead was unfiltered news about the issues that were important to them, from an independent and unbiased source. Although the website isn’t available in China, the people reading it were originally from there and likely as not some would have left family and friends behind in China. Chinese citizens could then potentially receive news reports from abroad, which would at least give them a much better idea about what was really happening within their own country.
TAM Photo Series
In addition to the TAM Massacre Photo Series, CND also has a TAM Demonstration Photo Series on its website. These images were taken between April 19th, when the first act of defiance took place in Tiananmen Square, and the day of the massacre on June 3rd.
http://www.cnd.org/June4th/demo.html
June 3rd-16th, 1989
There were still a few western journalists in Tiananmen Square square, referred to by some as TAM, when the PLA began rolling in on the night of June 3rd, but Chinese security agents would be on the lookout for them. Their cameras and film would be confiscated in order to ensure that no photographic evidence would make it to the outside world. They faced the possibility of being held in detention, or perhaps even worse.
However, as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army began liberating the people from their time here on Earth, some very brave individuals decided to put their own safety in great peril in order to capture these events on film. A picture taken by AP photographer Jeff Widener, which would come to be known as “Tank Man”, would become one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century.
A warning however that some of the images are graphic in nature and may be disturbing to some people. Discretion is advised.
The Advocate-Equalizer 