The United States urges China to make a full public account of those killed, detained or who went missing during a crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
The Chinese government had sent tanks and soldiers in an attempt to quell students’ protest on June 4th, 1989. After days of standoff, several thousand students were reportedly detained and some “disappeared”. Estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand.
“As Liu Xiaobo wrote in his 2010 Nobel Peace Prize speech, delivered in absentia, ‘the ghosts of June 4th have not yet been laid to rest’,” Pompeo said referring to the Chinese dissident who died last year while still in custody.
The Chinese government has kept a tight control over on Tiananmen Square, on the day of the anniversary troops were seen patrolling the area.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment and there was no mention of the day in state media. However, Hu Xijin, editor of widely-read Chinese newspaper wrote on Twitter that the 1989 demonstrators would never achieve their aims.
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