Select Committee on CCP Press Conference - "Tiananmen at 35 - The Ongoing Struggle for Human Rights and Democracy in China"
WASHINGTON, D.C.- This morning, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party held a bipartisan press conference to commemorate the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre titled "Tiananmen at 35 - The Ongoing Struggle for Human Rights and Democracy in China".
Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI), Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) provided remarks.
At the press conference, lawmakers commemorated the legacy of Tiananmen Square and highlighted the courage of dissidents and pro-democracy activists in China today. Both storied veterans of the Tiananmen Square generation and younger Chinese activists, many of whom are victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s transnational repression, were in attendance including: Wei Jingsheng, Wang Dan, Zheng Xuguang, Times Wang, Sophie Shengchun Luo, and Zhang Jinrui
Watch highlights from the press conference below.
Video & B-roll for public broadcast and distribution is available HERE
Chairman John Moolenaar:
“The greatest victims of the Chinese Communist Party have been the Chinese people themselves. Tens of millions have lost their lives. The brave men and women here today refuse to be silent. They refuse to repeat the party line that the CCP represents the Chinese people.”
Click HERE for Chairman Moolenaar's opening remarks as prepared for delivery.
Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi:
"When Chairman Xi Jinping says he will 'crack down hard on subversion and separatist activities'... he's telling the world that the CCP will send those tanks again against anyone that stands up for freedom.”
Kevin McCarthy, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the image of "Tankman" at Tiananmen Square in 1989:
“I’m proud that we will never hide from the fact that we’ll stand with the man at the tank and we’ll honor him everywhere we go until no longer will there be tanks in China after their own people.”
Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House of Representatives:
“We as Americans must speak out for human rights in China. If we don’t because of commercial reasons, we lose all moral authority to speak out about human rights any place in the world.”
Wei Jingsheng, leader of the 1978 "Democracy Wall" protests in Beijing, on the impact of the Chinese pro-democracy movement (through interpreter):
“Its [Tiananmen Square's] ideas, anti-Marxism, pro-democracy, pro-liberal values, had a huge impact on the world.”
Wang Dan, Tiananmen Square student protest leader:
“Human rights are the natural rights of all human beings. I believe the Chinese People deserve these rights no less than any people on Earth.”
Zheng Xuaguang, Tiananmen Square student protest leader:
“The essence of the China challenge facing the U.S., is a challenge to human freedom and dignity from a totalitarian-Stalinist Party state.”
Times Wang, son of famed Chinese dissident Wang Bingzhang:
"If you'd asked people like my father at the time... they could have told you, based on hard-won personal experience with the regime, that June 4 wasn't an anomaly... that it was a revelation of the regime's true character."