Two senior officials visited China on Sunday in an effort to defuse tensions between the two nations, but the Biden administration is being criticized for granting a huge coup to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Tiananmen Square massacre, in which the Chinese military killed hundreds or maybe thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, is being commemorated on Sunday, June 4, 34 years after it occurred.
Biden Administration Faces Backlash
The National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan affairs, Sarah Beran, and assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Daniel Kritenbrink traveled to Beijing to talk about key issues in the bilateral relationship, according to a press release from the State Department.
Issa, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claimed to Fox News Digital that the trip will only strengthen China and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s position globally while harming the United States.
This is not your typical foreign policy blunder, he declared. A significant coup for Xi, and America’s standing in the world just grew weaker – where it counts most – as a result of the concession that the Chinese requested and that the White House and State Department granted.
On the anniversary of the bloodshed in Tiananmen Square, police in Hong Kong have taken numerous pro-democracy campaigners into custody.
Public remembrance of the 1989 tragedy, in which China used tanks and troops to crush nonviolent rallies in Beijing, has been outlawed by the authorities.
Candlelight vigils, however, have been held in different cities across the world.
The 67-year-old Alexandra Wong, a well-known activist known as ‘Grandma Wong,’ was jailed.
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Hong Kong Activists Arrested During Tense Evening
She was detained while carrying flowers close to Victoria Park, where vigils had been conducted for decades, during a tense evening in Hong Kong.
Those detained included the leader of one of the major opposition parties in Hong Kong. An LED candle and two flowers were being held by Chan Po Ying, a seasoned pro-democracy campaigner, and leader of the League of Social Democrats party.
Mak Yin Ting, the former president of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, was also detained before being let free.
Police later reported that they had arrested one person and detained 23 people for additional investigation.
China’s Mainland forbids commemorative events for the Beijing massacre in 1989.
Due to the city’s semi-autonomous economic, political, and legal structure – known as one nation, two systems – formed when the city was transferred to China by the UK in 1997, Hong Kong was the only Chinese city where these commemorations were permitted for decades.
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