By Ju-min Park and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING/TAIPEI, June 4 (Reuters) – China on Thursday blasted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments on the deadly crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square 37 years ago as “smearing” the country’s political system, as Taiwan told China to face up to history.
The events on and around the central Beijing square on June 4, 1989, when Chinese troops opened fire to end student-led pro-democracy protests, are not publicly discussed in China and the anniversary is not officially marked.
Rubio said on Wednesday that Beijing’s censorship could not erase memories of the military assault.
“Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday,” he said in a statement that followed past practice of the United States’ top diplomat marking the anniversary.
Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said the government had long reached “a clear conclusion” about the “political turmoil that occurred in the late 1980s”, reiterating Beijing’s stance.
“China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposed to the U.S. distorting historical facts, smearing China’s political system and development path,” Mao said of Rubio’s statement.
She also accused the U.S. of interfering in China’s internal affairs “on the pretext of” democracy and human rights, and defended Beijing’s “path of socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
Public commemorations of the crackdown take place in overseas cities, including Taipei, where senior Taiwanese government leaders often use the anniversary to criticise China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.
Writing on his Facebook page, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said a truly great country should not “blindly believe in military might or engage in militarism”.
“I sincerely hope that China can face up to the June 4 incident of 37 years ago, acknowledge the truth, soothe the pain, and open the door to reconciliation and dialogue,” he added.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request seeking comment on Lai’s remarks.
China calls Lai a “separatist” and has rebuffed multiple offers of talks from him. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
VIGILS OVERSEAS
Chinese tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square before dawn on June 4, 1989, crushing weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations by students and workers.
China has never provided a full death toll, but rights groups and witnesses say the figure could run into thousands. China blamed the protests on counter-revolutionaries seeking to overthrow the ruling Communist Party.
In Hong Kong, where a candlelight vigil in the city’s Victoria Park once drew tens of thousands of people each year, public remembrances came to an end after Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020.
The football pitches at the park have instead been turned into a multi-day regional food and cultural bazaar hosted by pro-Beijing groups for a fourth year running.
Vigils were once hailed as a symbol of the Asian financial hub’s relative freedom compared to mainland China, but the anniversary in the city is now marked by a heavy police presence and few visible remembrance activities.
Chan Po-ying, a Hong Kong-based activist and the final chair of the now disbanded League of Social Democrats pro-democracy group, was taken away by a police van after showing up holding a yellow flower near Victoria Park.
“Today is June 4, a special date which meaning everyone understands. It is absurd that one person holding a single flower could attract so much attention from reporters and police…,” Chan said, before being stopped by police.
Nearby, police arrested a man with a candle in hand for “disorderly conduct.”
Several vigils were still expected to take place in a number of cities around the world on Thursday, including four in Germany and one in Australia.
Online, the British embassy in China posted a 16-second animation without caption on X, paying tribute to the lone unidentified man who famously obstructed the tanks. The clip had no narration but played a recording of “L’Internationale,” a Communist anthem that was sung widely by the protesters.
The British Consulate-General in Hong Kong uploaded a short video to its Facebook page showing light from a mobile phone flashing before the characters “VIIV” appeared – a reference to June 4.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Liz Lee and Ju-min Park in Beijing; Additional reporting by the Beijing and Hong Kong newsrooms; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Thomas Derpinghaus and Chizu Nomiyama )