A large crowd is expected to take part in a rally in the nation’s capital Tuesday to protest China’s ongoing human rights abuses on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Witnesses to the massacre and lawmakers, including Victims of Communism Caucus Chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, are expected to attend.
Organizers said that “Tiananmen Mothers Portraits” will be on display at the rally, which begins at 1:30 EST.
Marion Smith, VOC executive director, released the following statement:
Thirty years ago, China’s so-called ‘People’s Liberation Army’ murdered thousands of its fellow citizens who dared to protest for democracy and against corruption in Tiananmen Square. An opportunity to reform China’s communist system in favor of the Chinese peoples’ rights was extinguished. On June 4, we gather to remember the sacrifices of those brave Chinese students and workers from 1989 and others around the world who have tried to keep their memory alive. It is our duty to make sure they did not die in vain. We have inherited their struggle, even as Xi Jinping has inherited leadership of the guilty Party. Today, as many as two million Uighurs languish in Chinese prison camps just for having practiced their faith. At home, more and more Americans are beginning to see the People’s Republic of China for what it is–an unreformed communist dictatorship that tramples on human rights inside of China and threatens international peace abroad. To sit by in the face of such travesties is to betray the memory of Tiananmen’s victims and our own national interest as Americans. Instead we must continue their fight, serving as their voice and applying maximum pressure to Beijing to reform.
Organizations supporting and participating in the rally include: Amnesty International USA, Bitter Winter, Campaign for Uyghurs, ChinaAid, Citizen Power Initiatives for China, Dialogue China, East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, Formosan Association for Public Affairs, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Humanitarian China, International Campaign for Tibet, International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation, Keep Taiwan Free, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, Students for a Free Tibet, The Chen Guangcheng Foundation, the Church of Almighty God, Tibet Action Institute, Uyghur Human Rights Project, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, and the World Uyghur Congress.
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