Leader McConnell Statement On The 35th Anniversary Of The Tiananmen Square Massacre
“Thirty-five years ago, in the brutal suppression of a peaceful demonstration in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party reminded the world that its power is built on fear.
“The 1989 democracy movement’s example of brave defiance is reflected in more recent efforts to slow Beijing’s creeping influence beyond the mainland – from the streets of Hong Kong, where millions of people spoke with one voice against PRC subjugation, to the hills of Taiwan, where millions more prepare to resist aggression and conquest from the People’s Republic.
“But just as 1989’s popular dissent continues to echo and inspire, the PRC’s brutal response in Tiananmen Square still guides its efforts to control and coerce. The regime bent on overturning a stable international order welds Chinese citizens in their apartments to enforce Orwellian COVID policies, subjects Hong Kongers to Maoist show trials, and violates Taiwanese airspace with increasingly brazen reminders of its violent designs to bring the ROC’s robust, modern democracy to heel.
“By its example, Beijing leads a growing axis of fellow authoritarians who rule by oppression at home and redraw maps by aggression abroad. The PRC’s tradition of stifling dissent with force emboldens enemies of Western peace and prosperity from Moscow to Tehran to Pyongyang.
“So today, we pause to remember the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre, to direct greater attention to the PRC’s continuing efforts to subjugate the people of Hong Kong like its own captive citizens, and to redouble our efforts to help Taiwan and others resist Beijing’s hegemonic ambitions.”
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