37 years after Tiananmen, Washington challenges Beijing on the duty to remember

On the eve of the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that censorship imposed by Beijing could not erase the memory of the 1989 events, in which the Chinese army bloodily ended a vast pro-democracy movement.

In a statement released Wednesday, Marco Rubio paid tribute to the protesters who had gathered in and around Tiananmen Square. He noted that June 4th marks the anniversary of the day he said the Chinese Communist Party ordered its troops to intervene against thousands of peaceful demonstrators.

Human rights organizations believe that Chinese forces opened fire on protesters, killing hundreds, if not thousands. The exact number of victims remains unknown, as Chinese authorities have never released a detailed official account of the events.

“No censorship can erase the past,” said Marco Rubio, adding that those who fought for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly would one day be rehabilitated. This statement is part of a long-standing American diplomatic tradition of commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown annually, a practice regularly criticized by Beijing.

The remarks of the US Secretary of State come in a particular context. The American president Donald Trump Rubio recently highlighted his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whom he met in Beijing last month. His statement is therefore seen as a signal to Chinese dissidents and democracy advocates.

In China, any public reference to the Tiananmen Square events remains heavily controlled. Discussions about the 1989 crackdown are largely censored online and in the media, while public commemorations are banned. Despite these restrictions, the memory of this date continues to attract the attention of the international community and human rights organizations.