Chinese paramilitary policemen march past Tiananmen Gate on the eve of the 30th anniversary for the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protest in Beijing on June 3, 2019. | Ng Han Guan/AP Photo Foreign Policy Pompeo blasts China on anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed China’s human rights record on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, calling on Beijing to end its oppression of Uighur Muslims and other groups.

In a statement released at 12:01 a.m. Beijing time Tuesday to coincide with the anniversary, the top U.S. diplomat spoke wistfully of American hopes that China’s integration into the global economy would lead to a “more open, tolerant society.”


“Those hopes have been dashed,” said Pompeo, who is on travel in Europe. “China’s one-party state tolerates no dissent and abuses human rights whenever it serves its interests.”

The Communist Party leadership is “methodically attempting to strangle Uighur culture and stamp out the Islamic faith, including through the detention of more than 1 million members of Muslim minority groups,” Pompeo added.

Pompeo has consistently pointed out China’s human rights abuses during his tenure as secretary of state, among a raft of critiques the secretary of state has leveled at Beijing -- from its militarization of the South China Sea and the Arctic to its trade practices to its use of mass surveillance.

The Trump administration as a whole has made promoting religious liberty abroad a top priority, a move that has thrilled its evangelical Christian base in the United States.

But Pompeo’s statement also illustrates how selective the administration can be in calling out human rights abuses.

To an unusual degree compared to its predecessors, the administration has preferred to highlight human rights abuses by countries it considers adversaries, such as Iran, while avoiding discussing similar abuses by U.S. allies, such as Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump himself often avoids mentioning human rights at all — he has said nothing in public, for instance, about the 2017 mass killings and displacement of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, an atrocity some analysts say amounts to a genocide.

He also dropped his intense criticism of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s many human rights abuses as the two became engaged in nuclear talks. After meeting Kim in Singapore last year for the first of two historic summits, Trump called the dictator, who keeps tens of thousands of North Koreans in gulags, a “smart” and “funny guy” who “loves his people.”

On China, U.S. officials have been selective in raising human rights. Human rights activists believe the administration has held off on imposing sanctions on Chinese officials involved in oppressing the Uighurs to avoid upsetting trade negotiations.

Still, State Department officials insist they are determined to hold China to account. Days ago, new department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus used the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and one of her first appearances before reporters, to urge China to end its “particularly cruel and inhumane” treatment of Muslims.

The 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings is sure to spur criticism of Beijing from many corners.

On June 4, 1989, China’s communist leaders sent tanks into Tiananmen Square to stamp out pro-democracy demonstrations. The ensuing death toll likely ranges in the hundreds or even higher, though the exact total remains unknown due to Chinese government censorship.

“The events of 30 years ago still stir our conscience, and the conscience of freedom-loving people around the world,” Pompeo said in his statement. “We urge the Chinese government to make a full, public accounting of those killed or missing to give comfort to the many victims of this dark chapter of history.”

Pompeo's comments stand in stark contrast to those in a 1990 interview Trump, then a private businessman, conducted with Playboy.

"When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it," Trump said. "Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak."