China has lashed out at the United States after Washington’s top diplomat Antony Blinken vowed never to forget the crackdown in Tiananmen Square 35 years ago.
“The move of the US seriously interferes with China’s internal affairs,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. “China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes it,” she added.
She called on the United States to “stop provoking ideological confrontation, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.”
Chinese troops and tanks forcibly dispersed peaceful protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, quelling huge, weeks-long demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms. The exact toll is unknown but hundreds died, with some estimates putting the figure at more than 1,000 people.
China’s leaders have since sought to erase any public mention of the crackdown. Beijing on Wednesday insisted it “has made clear conclusions on the political turbulences that occurred in the 1980s.”
“We urge the US to correct immediately its mistakes (and) truly respect China’s sovereignty and development path,” she said.
On Tuesday, Blinken – who has visited Beijing twice since last year – called the events at Tiananmen Square a “massacre”. “As Beijing attempts to suppress the memory of June 4, the United States stands in solidarity with those who continue the struggle for human rights and individual freedom,” he said in a statement.
