Statement by the Chairman of the U.S. Congressional and Administration Committee on China Commemorates the 32nd Anniversary of the June Fourth Incident

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley (D-MA), Chairman of the Congressional and Executive Committee on China (CECC), and Democratic Congressman James McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chairman, issued a statement Thursday (June 3) commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the June 4 Incident in Tiananmen Square.

The full statement from the U.S. Congress and the Administration’s China Committee reads

Today, we salute the courage and sacrifice of all those who gathered in the streets of Beijing and more than 400 other cities in the spring of 1989 to call for democracy, human rights and an end to corruption. The violent repression of these protests crushed peaceful demands for rights and reform and continues to complicate U.S.-China relations to this day.

Because all discussion of the 1989 protests continues to be censored and commemorations banned – even now, in formerly self-governing Hong Kong – we are committed to commemorating this important event annually until every Chinese can do so freely and unrestricted to commemorate. We stand with the surviving victims’ families, including the brave Tiananmen Mothers, who, at great personal risk, still seek truth and justice.

Thirty-two years after the bloodshed, the Chinese government continues to brutally suppress the ability of the Chinese people to exercise their fundamental freedoms. The international community must unite to end the arbitrary detention and abuse of prisoners of conscience, the genocide in Xinjiang, the destruction of Tibetan culture and the religious freedom of hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens and the systematic destruction of the freedoms of the people of Hong Kong through international treaties.

The spirit of Tiananmen still exists in China, and freedom-loving people are gathered everywhere. We remember this tragic anniversary and commit ourselves to working for the future so that the quest of the Tiananmen generation can finally be realized in China and around the world.