Washington, DC — Today, Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on the 33rd anniversary of the Chinese government’s violent crackdown against peaceful, pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square: 

“Thirty-three years ago, thousands of students, workers, and pro-democracy activists gathered in Tiananmen Square, calling for basic freedoms and rights in China. The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) responded to their peaceful assembly and demonstration with a level of brutality and violence that has come to define the PRC. 

“Although more than three decades have passed since the Tiananmen massacre, the PRC has not learned from its past. It has only accelerated its cruelty and violent repression on multiple fronts — the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in the Uyghur region, the brutal assault on the autonomy and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, and pervasive surveillance throughout mainland China. 

“On this solemn day, we remember those killed at Tiananmen for wanting to live in a free and just China. Their struggle is not over, and we need to commemorate them by standing up for human rights in China today. We can do that by including the strong human rights and refugee provisions to protect Hong Kongers and Uyghurs from the House’s America COMPETES Act in the final, conferenced, competitiveness package.”