— The United States' erroneous remarks constitute a distortion of historical facts, slander of China's political system and development path, and interference in China's internal affairs, said Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, during a press briefing.
— We call on the US side to stop interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of democracy and human rights, she added.
In a statement issued a day earlier, the head of US diplomacy wrote that the world remembers how the Chinese Communist Party “ordered the military to attack thousands of peacefully demonstrating people.”
“Chinese students, workers and other civilians lost their lives as they gathered to exercise their rights and demand democratic reforms and accountability for corruption. (…) No amount of censorship can erase the past. Those who have sacrificed to defend the inalienable rights of free speech will one day receive justice,” Rubio said.
The Tiananmen Square massacre
On the night of June 3-4, 1989, the Chinese army opened fire on thousands of students and workers demanding democratic reforms in the country. According to independent estimates, from several hundred to several thousand defenseless people died. The communist authorities in Beijing have never taken responsibility for pacifying the demonstrators and suppress any public discussion on the subject.
Ahead of this year's anniversary, the Beijing Public Security Bureau, for the first time in over three decades, completely banned members of the Mother of Tiananmen group, which brings together the families of the 1989 victims, from entering the Wan'an cemetery to mourn their killed loved ones, Radio Free Asia reported on Wednesday. Also in Hong Kong, where crowds of people gathered every year for a candlelight vigil after Beijing imposed the so-called The National Security Act banned all forms of commemoration of the victims of the massacre.
