WASHINGTON – The United States on June 3 said that Chinese censorship could not “erase” the deadly 1989 crackdown on unarmed protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and that victims will eventually be “vindicated”.
“No amount of censorship can erase the past. Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement marking the 37th anniversary of the bloody episode.
He said protesters were on the square on June 4, 1989 “to exercise their natural rights and demand democratic reforms and accountability for corruption. We remember their lives and honor their legacy”.
The crackdown remains an intensely sensitive subject in communist-run China.
Rubio’s statement comes less than three weeks since President Donald Trump held a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing. AFP