World will never forget: Marco Rubio slams China on Tiananmen anniversary
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday marked the 36th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre with a scathing rebuke of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a heartfelt tribute to the students and citizens who died in Beijing's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests.In a statement, Rubio praised the 'bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms' during the 1989 uprising, when tens of thousands gathered in Beijing's largest public square to demand democratic reforms.advertisement'The CCP actively tries to censor the facts, but the world will never forget,' Rubio said. 'Today we commemorate the bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms.'
Calling the 1989 protests a 'national movement,' Rubio recounted how 'hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in the capital and throughout China took to the streets for weeks to exercise their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly by advocating for democracy, human rights, and an end to rampant corruption.'He condemned the Chinese military's violent response: 'The CCP responded with a brutal crackdown, sending the People's Liberation Army to open fire in an attempt to extinguish the pro-democracy sentiments of unarmed civilians gathered on Beijing's streets and in Tiananmen Square.'advertisementRubio also drew a broader message for global democracy: 'Their courage in the face of certain danger reminds us that the principles of freedom, democracy, and self-rule are not just American principles. They are human principles the CCP cannot erase.'The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.Chinese tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, and troops opened fire to end weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations by students and workers. The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll, though rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into the thousands, Reuters reported.The events are a taboo topic in China and the anniversary is not marked or publicly discussed, although public commemorations occur annually in overseas cities.Rubio's statement comes at a rocky time in the US-China relationship. Since beginning his second White House term, US President Donald Trump has unleashed 145% tariffs on most Chinese goods over what his administration sees as decades of trade abuses by China. Beijing responded with its own 125% tariffs on US products.Senior US officials said this week that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would soon speak to iron out trade issues, including a dispute over critical minerals and China's restrictions on exports of certain minerals.With inputs from ReutersTrending Reel
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