From his perches on the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and as the chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, this week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., weighed in on the 29th anniversary of the Chinese crackdown on the Tiananmen protests.
Rubio teamed up with U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, the co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, on Monday to call on the Chinese government to end sanctions on the protesters and on Chinese export controls on American technology.
“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,” Rubio said. “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. China’s Communist Party weathered cosmic geopolitical shifts over the following years that saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has emerged today richer and more powerful while the Chinese people remain unfree.
“As we reflect on the unfulfilled aspirations of over a million Chinese citizens who gathered in the square and across China 29 years ago, I call 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,” Rubio added. “As reports of the Chinese government’s ongoing rights abuses and increasingly sophisticated surveillance regime continue to emerge, I urge American corporations to be clear-eyed that any technology or crime control equipment that they sell to Chinese security forces and police, may be used or abused to further repression, surveillance, detention or other abuses.”
“We commemorate the Tiananmen massacre each year because of its enduring impact on U.S.-China relations and because there has been no justice for those who lost their lives seeking freedom and reform. We commemorate the tragedy of Tiananmen each year because it is an event too important to forget and too dangerous to commemorate in China,” said Smith.
“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. They also showed the lengths to which the Communist government will go to suppress these universal impulses and maintain their grip on power,” Smith added. “There continue to be those in China bravely seeking rights and the rule of law and carrying on the legacy of Tiananmen. Unfortunately, repression continues. By nearly every measure, China is today as intolerant of dissent as it's ever been, if not more. The administration recognizes the strategic importance of linking our values and interests and we in Congress will continue to urge them to take steps, symbolic and tangible alike, that will communicate to the Chinese people that their struggle and sacrifice have not been forgotten. A firm stand in support of freedom, the rule of law, and human rights in China will be beneficial both to the future of China and peace and prosperity in the world."
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