Beijing ¨C China accused the United States on Thursday of distorting facts and smearing its political system, after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said censorship could not ¡°erase¡± the memory of Beijing¡¯s 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
On June 4 that year, the Chinese government sent troops and tanks to crush protests calling for political reform in and around Beijing¡¯s Tiananmen Square.
The death toll remains unknown, and discussion of what happened is censored in mainland China.
Rubio told a news conference on Wednesday that ¡°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,¡± he said.
China¡¯s foreign ministry said Thursday it firmly opposed Rubio¡¯s comments.
¡°The Chinese government has long since reached a clear conclusion regarding that political turmoil that occurred in the late 1980s,¡± ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news briefing.
¡°The relevant erroneous remarks by the U.S. side distort historical facts, smear China¡¯s political system and development path, and interfere in China¡¯s internal affairs,¡± she said.
This year, authorities reportedly prevented the families of those who died in 1989 from visiting their graves at Beijing¡¯s Wan¡¯an Cemetery, with Amnesty International calling the move ¡°a heartless act.¡±
Beijing has also moved in recent years to snuff out all public commemorations in Hong Kong, where an annual candlelight vigil had been held for decades before the imposition of a national security law in 2020.
There was a heavy police presence on Wednesday near Hong Kong¡¯s Victoria Park, the former site of the event.
Late that night, activist Tang Ngok-kwan stood alone in the park, reading the names of hundreds of victims in a low voice under the watchful eyes of several plainclothes police officers.
Derek Chu, a former district councillor who has been giving out free candles in his shop every anniversary since 2022, said that ¡°the space for (free) speech is more and more narrow.¡±
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