Thirty-seven years after Chinese troops crushed the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square, the United States used the anniversary to remind the world of what happened — and to press Beijing for trying to bury it. Ahead of June 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a press statement honoring the 1989 demonstrators as people who had gathered to exercise their natural rights and demand democratic reform. Addressing China's long campaign of erasure, he declared: "No amount of censorship can erase the past."
The words carried added weight given the messenger. Rubio had been sanctioned by China during his time in the Senate over his criticism of its human rights record. Beijing did not let the statement pass quietly: a foreign ministry spokesman called the remarks an "attack" and lodged a protest.
