Chris Smith: “It's been 30 years since the Chinese government brutally crushed the peaceful demonstrations occurring in Beijing…”

“It's been 30 years since the Chinese government brutally crushed the peaceful demonstrations occurring in Beijing Tiananmen Square. The beating, the bayonetting, the torture, and detentions of the 1989 demonstrators turned the dream of freedom into a bloody nightmare. ``Tiananmen'' will always symbolize the brutal lengths China's Communist Party will go to remain in power. When the tanks rolled down the Square on June 4th, 1989--mothers lost sons, fathers lost daughters, and China lost an idealistic generation of future leaders. The resolution before us, H. Res. 393, honors the extraordinary sacrifice endured by thousands of peaceful Chinese democracy activists who rallied for almost two months in Beijing and in over 400 other cities in China, in a heroic quest for liberty and human rights. The government of China continues to go to astounding lengths to censor and ban open discussion of Tiananmen. This resolution sends the right message: we will never forget Tiananmen as long as the Chinese people cannot discuss its significance openly without harassment or arrest. Some may prefer to forget this incident. To move on and look past the slaughter of peaceful demonstrators. But the memory of the dead and those arrested, tortured, and exiled requires us to honor them, respect their noble aspirations for fundamental freedoms, and recommit ourselves to the struggle for freedom and human rights in China.…”