Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi at Roundtable Event for Tiananmen Square Massacre 34th Anniversary: "We Are Going to Speak For Freedom"
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last night, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and CCP, spoke at a roundtable event, hosted by the Select Committee, commemorating the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The event featured striking testimony from democracy and human rights activists Wei Jingsheng and Hengping “Henry” Li.
Full remarks made by Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi can be found below, and video of his remarks can be found here.
Thank you Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Chairman Gallagher for your incredible leadership and thank you to all of you for your service.
A philosopher once said, “The secret to happiness is freedom, and the secret to freedom is courage.” Today, I brought a picture precisely of that scene of courage that the Speaker described and the Chairman alluded to, which is a scene that is indelibly printed in all of our minds, about Tiananmen Square. This man, standing in front of that tank.
People had a choice on that day: Do you stand with that man who stood up to power, or do you stand with that tank, and the brutal Chinese Communist Party which sought to quash freedom? Many, like you two [Mr. Jingsheng and Mr. Li], and others, stood with that man. So many Chinese people were exiled, or worse, for standing with that man. Then there are a lot of people who stood with that tank, and stood with the CCP, and thought business could just proceed as usual. We see what has happened in the intervening time.
And so today, we have to remember that when Chairman Xi Jinping says he will “Crack down hard on subversion and separatist activities” by those deemed as “enemy forces”, he is telling the world that the CCP will send those tanks again against anyone that stands up for freedom, and he will deem his own people as enemies of the state.
We’ve seen this in Xinjiang, with the genocide of the Uyghur people. We’ve seen this in Hong Kong with suppression of people who seek freedom. And we see this in Tibet with the persecution of the Tibetan people.
And so today we say with one voice, in a bipartisan fashion: No more. No more.
We are going to speak for freedom. We’re going to stand with anyone who does the same. So I look forward to not only remembering this day, but using this day as a call to action. That is what this committee is all about. So thank you, Speaker, thank you Chairman, and thank you to all of you for joining and acting, and not just remembering, based on what happened in June of 1989. Thank you.
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