On the 36th anniversary of the deadly attack on pro-democracy demonstrators in China’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, jabs exchanged between Washington and Beijing highlight the continued disconnect between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Western democratic values. 

In a statement Tuesday evening, which was Wednesday morning local time in China, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement that said, “the world will never forget” the CCP’s brutal actions as it “actively tries to censor the facts.”

“Today we commemorate the bravery of the Chinese people who were killed as they tried to exercise their fundamental freedoms,” Rubio said. “Their courage in the face of certain danger reminds us that the principles of freedom, democracy, and self-rule are not just American principles. They are human principles the CCP cannot erase.”

Tanks opened fire on unarmed crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators.

The extent of the massacre remains unknown, though hundreds were believed to have been killed, with some estimates ranging as high as 1,000 civilian deaths.

The CCP has since sought to cover up the crackdown by refusing to publicly acknowledge the tragedy, scrubbing online references and barring media coverage of the event.

Police officers stand at the fence in front of Tiananmen Square, the site of a massacre 36 years ago, on June 4, 2025, in Beijing. (Johannes Neudecker/picture alliance via Getty Images)

The communist leadership has acknowledged the anniversary by routinely ramping up security at the square, as well as the entrance to Wan’an Cemetery, where some of the victims of the attack were laid to rest, reported AFP.

Images of security forces lining Tiananmen Square again surfaced on Wednesday, though the square stood relatively empty.