Shanghai Street, 1927

On March 21–22, 1927, KMT and CCP union workers led by Zhou Enlai and Chen Duxiu launched an armed uprising in Shanghai, defeating the warlord forces of the Zhili clique. The victorious union workers occupied and governed urban Shanghai except for the International Settlements prior to the arrival of the NRA’s Eastern Route Army led by Generals Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren.

This picture, relayed back to the world’s media, shows the heavy police and army presence on a Shanghai street in the wake of the uprising…