This past June 4, we marked the 37th somber anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, where millions of Chinese citizens peacefully and earnestly asked for political reform and democratic openness.Instead, their hope was met with tanks.On that awful day, the Chinese Communist Party unleashed the People’s Liberation Army on these peaceful demonstrators.
Mothers lost sons.Fathers lost daughters.
And China lost an idealistic generation.Over three decades later, and China has still not accounted for those killed, imprisoned, or disappeared, instead endeavoring to erase a massacre the world must never forget.But, despite the CCP’s best efforts, Tiananmen cannot be erased.CHINESE SPY INFILTRATION: MAYOR’S BUST ADDS TO GROWING TIMELINE OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE CREEPING INTO USThe enduring image of that day is the Tank Man, the solitary figure standing before a column of tanks.
His courage reminds us that the desire for freedom is not Western, not foreign, and not imposed from outside — rather, it is universal.As I have said before, a choice has to be made by us all: you either stand with the Tank Man, or you stand with the tank.There is no middle ground.
And there is no middle ground in the issue of transnational repression.The same Party that tried to crush truth at home now tries to chase and snuff out the truth abroad.The tactics and technology have changed, but the reach has expanded.Inside China, the CCP uses surveillance, censorship, prison, torture, forced disappearance, and fear to maintain power.
Now, what happens in China no longer stays in China.The Party wants to control what is said about China here and control who says it.As both Chair and Co-Chair of the CECC over the past several years, I have warned about the CCP’s documented and consistent pattern of global abuses stretching outside of China’s borders, beginning with Confucious Institutes in 2014.Over time, tactics have become more digital and more ruthless: detaining family members in C...