China yesterday reacted angrily to a pending US Congressional resolution that condemns the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen protests and demands Beijing release from jail a leading democracy campaigner.
"There are a handful of people in the United States Congress that cannot stand what happens in China and they are using all kinds of pretexts to defame China," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) said. "They are not happy to see the improvements in China-US relations and they take pains to set up obstacles to the relationship.
"They will never win the hearts of the people and are bound to fail," he said.
The resolution, co-sponsored by senior Republican legislator Christopher Cox and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was to come to a vote yesterday.
"On a bipartisan basis, Congress stands united in support of freedom for the people of China," Cox declared this week.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of peaceful protesters were killed in Beijing 15 years ago when the People's Liberation Army assaulted the heart of the capital to end unprecedented democracy protests.
The resolution condemns "ongoing and egregious human rights abuses" and urges the government to order an independent inquiry into the reported killing, torture and imprisonment of democracy activists in Tiananmen Square.
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