BOISE, Idaho – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today made the following statement in advance of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and ensuing massacre in China, which occurred on June 4, 1989:
“Thirty-three years ago, hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest the Chinese Communist Party’s iron grip, and to call for a free China. Instead of engaging with these citizens, CCP leadership sent the People’s Liberation Army to gun down thousands of protestors, many of whom were students and young professionals. Today, we honor those in China who tragically and brutally lost their lives at Tiananmen in 1989.
“Unfortunately, the CCP continues to crush and silence dissent today. It has leveraged its military and technological power to severely restrict internet access, suppress free media, quash freedom of religion, and destroy the rule of law in China, and now also in Hong Kong. These restrictions are all enforced under the world’s most advanced and intrusive mass surveillance system. It is shameful that the CCP still feels so threatened by its own people that it inflicts coercive, ruthless suppression on Chinese citizens.
“The CCP is also trying to export this rule by fear by taking over Hong Kong, and through aggressive military and economic coercion of Taiwan and other neighboring countries that do not comply with its demands. Additionally, the CCP’s shocking acts of transnational repression on American soil and beyond should concern all countries.
“On this day, we must remember the vision of those who perished in Tiananmen: a free China, with political freedom, and economic prosperity available to all Chinese citizens. We must ensure that the United States and our democratic allies remain a defender of this vision, and remain vigilant to the Chinese Communist Party’s malign influence in every corner of the world.”
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