A Chinese human rights activist who has helped release banned photographs taken on the streets of Beijing in the leadup to the Tiananmen Square crackdown has called on Hong Kongers to seek international support in their long fight for democracy.

Zhou Fengsuo of Humanitarian China has collected thousands of photographs from a U.S.-based Chinese businessman who, as a student in 1989, chronicled the few weeks before the bloody crackdown.

The collection of photographs by Liu Jian recounts the period from when the protest started with high hopes to when it was quashed by the Chinese military. It includes gruesome images of bodies spread out on the floor of a hospital the photographer visited hours after the bloody crackdown.

Zhou likened Hong Kong’s battle against China’s tightening grip over its autonomy to the democratic movement 31 years ago, saying international support is crucial in pushing for change. “Hong Kong protesters should stay united … and seek international support,” Zhou told Apple Daily.

In commemorating the 31st anniversary of the crackdown, Zhou’s group helped organise an exhibition in New York this year with the photographs by Liu, who was then a student in Beijing.

As a former student activist himself, Zhou said he firmly stood by Hong Kong’s youth in their fight for freedom as China tightened its grip over the city. He said he stayed with protesters in 2014 in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok during the Umbrella Movement, referring to the protests calling for universal suffrage that led to weeks of street occupation in Hong Kong.

“I have always stood by our young people in their resistance,” he said, adding that Hong Kong people should expect a “long journey” to endure in their fight for liberties.

Liu took some 2,000 photographs but kept the 60 rolls of negatives to himself for years, fearing that they would bring him trouble. According to an interview he previously did with Voice of America, he didn’t release them until he noticed his daughter knew nothing about this part of Chinese history.

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