US Senators Warn CCP Against Quelling Protests With Violence

A man is arrested while protesters gathered on a street in Shanghai on Nov. 27, 2022. Protests against China's 'zero-COVID' policy took place the night before following a deadly fire in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has warned China’s ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, of “grave consequences for the U.S.–China relationship” if the communist regime carries out a violent suppression of demonstrations similar to 1989’s Tiananmen Square massacre.

Police have responded with notable force as protests continue to rage across China over the regime’s harsh COVID-19 policies, which have deprived millions of Chinese residents of their freedom of movement.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), one of the lead signers of a sharply worded letter to Qin, said in a statement accompanying the letter’s publication on Dec. 1 that he and other signers saw a need to speak out and warn Beijing about what would happen if the regime fails to respect the right of citizens to signal their opposition to the severe COVID-19 policies.

He said the world’s response to Beijing’s efforts to quell the protests has been “tepid at best.”

The letter, which emphasizes the nonviolent character of the protests in China, implies that any abusive and violent conduct on the part of the regime would be illegal and unethical.

“We are following the current peaceful protests in China over your government’s policies very carefully. We are also closely watching the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) reaction to them,” the letter reads.

The letter goes on to remind Qin about the notorious events of June 1989, which drew worldwide condemnation and became synonymous with excessive force on the part of an authoritarian regime.

“In 1989, the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army undertook a violent crackdown on peacefully protesting Chinese students, killing hundreds, if not thousands,” the letter reads, before issuing a stark warning.

“We caution the CCP in the strongest possible terms not to once again undertake a violent crackdown on peaceful Chinese protestors who simply want more freedom. If that happens, we believe there will be grave consequences for the U.S.–China relationship, causing extraordinary damage to it.”

In an illustration of the bipartisan nature of the gesture, the two names at the top of the list of signatories are those of Sullivan, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who chairs the Congressional–Executive Committee on China. The rest of the signatories are primarily Republicans, with a few prominent Democrats in the mix, including Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Jack Reed (D-RI.).

Officials with the Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.