Friday, 06 June 2025
Friday, 06 June 2025
China on Wednesday denounced the US state secretary Marco Rubio for saying the world will “never forget” the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, calling his comments a malicious “attack” on the country.
“The erroneous statements by the US side maliciously distort historical facts, deliberately attack China’s political system and developmental path, and seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs,” foreign-ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters, as quoted saying by Eurasiantimes.
“The Chinese side is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it. We have lodged a solemn protest with the US side,” he added.
Rubio’s remarks—and Beijing’s swift rebuttal—came on the 36th anniversary of the June 4, 1989 event when Chinese troops reportedly crushed weeks-long pro-democracy demonstrations in the heart of the capital.
“Today we commemorate the bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms, as well as those who continue to suffer persecution as they seek accountability and justice for the events of June 4, 1989,” Rubio said on Wednesday.
“The [Chinese Communist Party] actively tries to censor the facts, but the world will never forget,” he added.
Rubio also called the 1989 victims “brave,” while China condemned his words as interference.
In Taipei, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te echoed Rubio, vowing to keep the history alive.
“Authoritarian governments often choose to silence and forget history, while democratic societies choose to preserve the truth and refuse to forget those who gave their lives—and their dreams—to the idea of human rights,” Lai said.
“We remember the sacrifice of our predecessors, and we know the value of freedom, and we cannot ignore the erosion of global democracy and the rule of law by authoritarian expansion,” he added.
What happened on June 3–4, 1989
Student-led protests demanding broader individual freedoms erupted in late 1986 and early 1987 in China. By the spring of 1989, it had swept through China’s universities and urban centers.
In addition, inflation and allegations of widespread corruption among government officials, had plagued Chinese society.
The hard-liners within the Chinese Communist Party ordered a crackdown, denouncing the movement as “bourgeois liberalism” and reasserting control. The Chinese government declared martial law and ordered the army to clear Tiananmen Square, where the protesters had gathered.
Troops—supported by tanks—first fired tear gas, then live ammunition and finally drove armored vehicles through the crowd, according to a Hindustan Times report, published on June 5, 1989.
A Beijing University student leader reported that 3,000 people had been killed.
“Thousands of innocent civilians have been killed in a barbaric act of oppression,” said the English announcer of Radio Beijing.
No official death toll has ever been released; activists say the figure is hundreds, possibly thousands.
One broad avenue leading into the square “turned into a death trap” as soldiers fired “salvo after salvo” at panicked citizens.
Hundreds of injured were rushed to hospitals on wooden carts; medical facilities were soon “swamped with the bodies of the dead and wounded.”
Chinese troops and tanks ultimately cleared peaceful protesters from the square.
The exact toll remains unknown, but accounts agree that hundreds died, with some estimates exceeding 1,000, according to reports.
