China’s foreign ministry criticizes U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s remarks on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, calling them a distortion of history and an attack on China’s political system. Rubio said Wednesday that “no amount of censorship can erase the past,” adding that those who supported free expression and peaceful assembly would be vindicated someday. The U.S. comments are referenced in relation to the events of June 4, 1989, when Chinese authorities used troops and tanks to crush protests calling for political reform in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Chinese state-linked statements also reiterate that discussion of the incident is censored in mainland China and that the death toll remains unclear. On Thursday, China’s foreign ministry said it firmly opposed Rubio’s comments. A spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said the U.S. remarks are erroneous, smear China’s political system and development path, and distort historical facts. The sources present the dispute as a diplomatic exchange between Washington and Beijing over how to characterize the 1989 events and the role of censorship in shaping public memory.