The US has urged China to make a full public accounting of those killed in Tiananmen Square, as top American lawmakers honoured the "extraordinary bravery" of those who rose up to demand their rights and defy the regime.
A brutal military crackdown resulted in a massacre of hundreds ofstudents protesting against the ruling Communist Party in Tiananmen square in the heart of Beijing on June 4, 1989. The massive square became famous all over the world with an iconic picture of a young man standing before a row of battle tanks.
"On the 29th anniversary of the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, we remember the tragic loss of innocent lives," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
As Liu Xiaobo wrote in his 2010 Nobel Peace Prize speech, delivered in absentia, "the ghosts of June 4th have not yet been laid to rest," he said.
"We join others in the international community in urging the Chinese government to make a full public accounting of those killed, detained or missing; to release those who have been jailed for striving to keep the memory of Tiananmen Square alive; and to end the continued harassment of demonstration participants and their families," Pompeo said yesterday.
The US views the protection of human rights as a fundamental duty of all countries, he said and asked the Chinese government to respect the universal rights and fundamental freedoms of all citizens.
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said that that the world today honours the extraordinary bravery of the Chinese freedom fighters who rose up to demand their rights and defy an oppressive and corrupt regime.
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"Twenty-nine years after this heroic act, the image of a lone man standing resolute in the face of Chinese military tanks remains seared into the memory of all freedom-loving people, symbolizing all who yearn for a better future for themselves and their children," she said.
Today, the world honours the extraordinary bravery of the Chinese freedom fighters who rose up to demand their rights and defy an oppressive and corrupt regime, Pelosi said.
Tiananmen Square Massacre's anniversary reminds us that the fundamental human yearning for dignity and basic rights is not limited to any one region or country," said Senator Marco Rubio.
"Outrage over the Chinese government and Communist Party's brutal response to the protestors' legitimate and peaceful demands for democratic reform reverberated internationally, most notably behind the Iron Curtain where pro-democracy movements rapidly grew in the wake of the crackdown, inspired by the bravery of the students, workers, and other ordinary people who gathered in cities across China that spring," he said.
Rubio called on the Chinese government to allow free and open discourse surrounding the events of that spring, to unconditionally release those detained or imprisoned for attempting to commemorate the anniversary, and to reckon publicly with the horrific violence against the Chinese people at the hands of the Party and the military.
Congressman Christopher Smith said the Tiananmen protests and their violent suppression demonstrated that the ideas of democracy and due process, liberty and the rule of law are not foreign to the people of China.
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