US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown later in the day, according to the State Department's Daily Schedule released on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2020) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown later in the day, according to the State Department's Daily Schedule released on Tuesday.
"2:30 p.m. Secretary Pompeo meets with Tiananmen Square Survivors, at the Department of State," the schedule indicated.
On June 4, 1989, a student-led protest being held in Beijing's Tiananmen Square was dispersed by the army, leaving over 200 dead and 7,000 injured, according to official estimates. Human rights activists have claimed the death toll is in the thousands.
The crackdown was followed by a wave of arrests. More than 1,500 people were arrested, and eight people were sentenced to death. Many protesters were deprived of their Chinese citizenship and deported. Some of the protesters managed to flee the country, including to Hong Kong, a British colony at the time.
In the West, the events are seen as "protests for democracy," while Beijing officially considers them a "counterrevolutionary insurgency."
In 2004, then-Chinese President Hu Jintao stated that Beijing did not intend to change its attitude toward the 1989 events. He noted that the measures taken at that time had played a "decisive role" in China's successful economic growth in the following years.
