Tiananmen at 35

OPINION:

A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.

Thirty-five years ago, the world watched as millions of Chinese gathered to peacefully demand political reform and democratic openness. The hopes and dreams of those heady days ended with needless violence—tears, bloodshed, arrest, and exile. Mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters, and China lost an idealistic generation to the tanks that rolled down Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989.

On this solemn occasion, it is important to reflect on the events that led up to that fateful day in 1989 and consider why they still matter for the Cold War competition that now shapes U.S.-China relations.      

The students who initially gathered in the center of Beijing in April 1989 did so to mourn the death of Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang, whom they viewed as a political reformer. 

In the days to follow, thousands gathered in Tiananmen Square and in over 400 other cities. Their numbers grew as the days passed until more than a million people—including journalists, workers, government employees and police—joined the Tiananmen students in demanding a future built on justice, freedom, and dignity.

Late in the evening of June 3rd and into June 4th, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party leadership unleashed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) upon the protesters. The PLA used brute and lethal force against peaceful protest. Guns and tanks crushed innocent civilians, young and old alike.  

The precise number of casualties is unknown. There has been no public accounting of the events of that week and no justice for the victims. Rather, those seeking to commemorate the event or seek information about those killed, like the Tiananmen Mothers, are harassed, detained, and arrested.

One of the most iconic images from the Tiananmen Massacre is that of the “Tank Man”—the solitary figure with shopping bags in hand, who stood in front of the advancing line of tanks. 

That act of brave defiance inspired the world. It should remind us that Tiananmen is not simply a past event to ponder but a present reminder that when the Chinese people are free to assemble, act, and speak, they demand freedom, democracy, and political reform.
What happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 also demonstrates that the principles of freedom and democracy are not only American principles. The fundamental human yearning for dignity and liberty is not limited to any region or country. 

They are aspirations that transcend countries and cultures; neither tanks nor torture can ever erase them. 

Sadly, as we look at the China of today, the prospects for greater civil and political rights seem as remote as the day after the tanks rolled through Tiananmen Square. 

An increasingly aggressive Chinese Communist government is more repressive in domestic politics, mercantilist in trade and economic policy, dismissive of international norms and more assertive in exporting the authoritarian model globally.

While repression looks much different today than it did 35 years ago, the goal remains the same: to preserve the Communist Party’s monopoly on political power through any means possible—state-sponsored indoctrination, a pervasive surveillance state, arbitrary detention, torture, and transnational repression.  

The U.S. and all freedom-loving people cannot be neutral when the Chinese Communist government tramples human rights with impunity or while genocide and crimes against humanity are being committed as we speak.

A choice has to be made: You either stand with the ‘Tank Man’ or stand with the tank. There is no middle ground.

That choice is starker now than it was 35 years ago. The U.S. and its allies face a systemic challenge from the Chinese Communist Party and their allies in Russia, Iran, and North Korea.  

It is a challenge we cannot avoid, and promoting human rights and freedom must be recognized as a strategic advantage against the dark forces of authoritarianism.  

The United States must do a better job leading the free world’s democracies in shining a light on the atrocities being committed by the Chinese Communist Party and holding those responsible accountable—whether through more robust use of existing sanctions authorities or better leveraging American influence at the United Nations.

We must take all steps to stop the Communist Chinese Party’s efforts to export their authoritarian model around the world.

We must find more efficient ways to stop American companies from subsidizing Communist tyranny and forced labor.    

We must better protect Chinese students and the Chinese diaspora from intimidation and even violence while they live in the United States.

And we must treat the “Great Firewall” of China like the 21st-century Berlin Wall—tearing it down must be a critical U.S. priority that will allow the dissemination of news and information within China and allow the Chinese people to communicate without fear.

At the same time, we must resolutely stand with those in China and Hong Kong who are imprisoned, censored, and disappeared, 
The Christian pastor, the Uyghur, the labor organizer, the Tibetan Buddhist monk, the human rights lawyer, the Hong Kong democracy activist and countless others living under the repressive policies of the Chinese Communist Party.

They are the ones who will ultimately bring political change to China. 

We must communicate to them and the Chinese people directly that their struggle and pain have not and will not be forgotten. 

And we believe that the Chinese Communist Party will eventually be consigned to the ash heap of history.    

To do anything less dishonors the spirit of Tiananmen and those who continue to stand so bravely and resolutely for freedom.

• Elected in 1980, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester, N.J.) is currently in his 22nd two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and serves residents of the Fourth Congressional District of New Jersey. Mr. Smith serves as a senior member on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Chairman of its Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee.