China yesterday rejected calls for a probe into the Tiananmen Square Massacre, saying that the matter had been settled.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed on Wednesday to China to openly examine “the darker events of its past” and provide a public account of those killed, detained or missing as a result of the violent crackdown, a day after the US House of Representatives passed a resolution urging Beijing to launch a probe into the incident.
“As for the political incident that took place in China and all related issues, our party and government have already come to a clear conclusion,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) told reporters at a regular briefing.
PHOTO: AFP
Asked whether the government would ever review its conclusion, Qin ignored the question.
Clinton’s strongly worded statement was likely to win praise from human rights activists, who were bitterly disappointed at her failure to press for human rights during a visit to Beijing earlier this year.
The statement could signal a tougher line from the administration of US President Barack Obama, which does not want a dialogue on human rights to interfere with talks on trade, climate change and North Korea.
In her statement, Clinton referred to “the tragic loss of hundreds of innocent lives” when hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Beijing and around the country to “demand basic rights denied to them.”
“A China that has made enormous progress economically, and that is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership, should examine openly the darker events of its past … both to learn and to heal,” she said, calling on China to “release from prison all those still serving sentences in connection with the events surrounding June 4, 1989.”
“China can honor the memory of that day by moving to give the rule of law, protection of internationally-recognized human rights, and democratic development the same priority as it has given to economic reform,” she said.
In Washington, a series of events were scheduled to commemorate the anniversary, including a rally on the West Lawn of the Capitol and another in the Rayburn House Office Building of the Capitol complex, at which Yu Zhijian (??, Lu Decheng (魯德成) and Yu Dongyue (??, known as the “three heroes of Tiananmen,” were scheduled to appear.
The three were to be reunited for the first time since being released from prison and fleeing China.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was scheduled to lead the rally and said the “three heroes” would speak about their years spent in laogai, or gulags, for defacing a large portrait of Mao Zedong (毛澤東).
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