Moolenaar Leads Tiananmen Commemoration, Demands End to D.C.-Beijing Ties and Stands with Chinese Dissidents
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Select Committee on China today hosted a press conference to commemorate the legacy of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Held on the massacre's 36th anniversary, the event highlighted the powerful courage of dissidents and pro-democracy advocates in China today.
A variety of speakers attended the event, but their messages shared one theme: standing up for freedom against the totalitarian regime of the CCP.
"For 76 years, the CCP’s greatest victims have been the Chinese people themselves, millions dead, millions more living under fear, censorship, and repression. Even the act of remembering Tiananmen is illegal in China today," said Chairman Moolenaar. "But we remember. We remember the students who held up banners calling for reform. The workers who refused to leave. The man who stood in front of a tank and reminded the world what courage looks like."
Chairman Moolenaar was joined by a bipartisan group, including Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Young Kim (R-CA), Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Zach Nunn (R-IA), Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Jill Tokuda (D-HI).
During the press conference, two Chinese dissidents and victims of the CCP's transnational repression, Wang Dan and Wei Jingsheng, also spoke.
When discussing the legacy of Tiananmen Square, Chairman Moolenaar spotlighted the U.S. as a beacon of freedom and democracy, the same values that the CCP works to end.
As part of the event, Chairman Moolenaar took concrete action delivering a letter calling on Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to end the city's sister-city relationship with Beijing, a move aimed at rejecting CCP propaganda and standing unequivocally with the Chinese people.
"In Washington D.C., our citizens enjoy freedom of speech, petition, and assembly. In Beijing, under the CCP’s rule, the Chinese people have no such rights," the letter reads. "When sister city ties were first established by these two cities in 1984, the hope was that the CCP could change for the better, and that the Chinese people would soon get a taste of freedom. That optimism was crushed just five years later in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, where hundreds if not thousands of students and pro-reform activists were killed."
The letter, an official and public demand for accountability, is signed by several of the event's speakers, including Chairman Moolenaar, CECC Co-Chair Smith, and Representatives Bilirakis, Kim, Newhouse, and Nunn. It is also signed by Representatives Andy Barr (R-KY), Neal Dunn (R-FL), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), and Rob Wittman (R-VA).
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