Washington”•The US House of Representatives urged China on Tuesday to end its wall of silence over the crushed Tiananmen Square movement, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowing on the 30th anniversary to keep the memory alive.
The House approved a resolution that urged China to provide a “full, transparent and independent accounting” of the Tiananmen crackdown, in which hundreds if not more than 1,000 pro-democracy protesters were killed on June 4, 1989 as the communist rulers sent in tanks and troops.
The resolution”•sponsored by Democratic Representative Jim McGovern and passed unanimously with 10 members not voting”•called on Beijing to allow Tiananmen dissidents who fled to the United States or elsewhere “to return to China without risk of repercussions and retribution.”
It also urged China to “cease the censoring of information and discussion about the Tiananmen Square massacre” including at Confucius Institutes, the centers for Chinese studies that Beijing has supported at universities around the world.
Pelosi, a longtime advocate for human rights in China, said she was making a promise to the Tiananmen Mothers, who have fought on behalf of victims.
“Today, and on all days, we assure these mothers that we remember, and that the heroism of their children will continue to be written in the official history of the United States Congress,” Pelosi told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which monitors human rights in the country.
“We must remember, because China still tries to deny history,” Pelosi said, in a rare appearance by a House leader before a congressional hearing.
Pelosi voiced concern that China is “going in the opposite direction” on human rights.
“It’s important for the world to know, 30 years later, that we haven’t forgotten what happened then and that we know what is happening now and it will have an impact in our relationship with China,” she said.
Pelosi’s remarks came a day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that China provide a full accounting of the Tiananmen crackdown and release political prisoners, saying that the United States had lost hope for improvements in China’s human rights record over the past 30 years.
His statement prompted an unusually angry reprimand from China, which denounced his “lunatic ravings and babbling nonsense.”
China went to great lengths to avoid commemorations of the anniversary, with authorities detaining activists and ramping up surveillance of the square itself, with livestreaming services suddenly down for “technical” reasons.
Pelosi, whose district includes San Francisco’s Chinatown, infuriated Beijing on a visit as a rank-and-file lawmaker in 1991 when she unfurled a pro-democracy banner in Tiananmen Square to honor the victims.