BEIJING/TAIPEI (REUTERS) — China on Thursday blasted United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio for saying that Beijing’s censorship of the deadly crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square 37 years ago won’t erase memories of the military assault.

The events on and around the central Beijing square on 4 June 1989, when Chinese troops opened fire to end student-led pro-democracy protests, are not publicly discussed in China and the anniversary is not officially marked.

“Those who sacrificed to uphold their unalienable rights of free expression and peaceful assembly will be vindicated someday,” Rubio said on Wednesday in a statement that followed past practice of the US’ top diplomat marking the anniversary.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the government had long reached “a clear conclusion” about the “political turmoil that occurred in the late 1980s,” reiterating Beijing’s stance.

“China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposed to the US distorting historical facts, smearing China’s political system and development path,” Mao said of Rubio’s statement.

She also accused the US of interfering in China’s internal affairs “on the pretext of” democracy and human rights, and defended Beijing’s “path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

Public commemorations of the crackdown take place in overseas cities, including Taipei, where senior Taiwanese government leaders often use the anniversary to criticize China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.

Writing on his Facebook page, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said a truly great country should not “blindly believe in military might or engage in militarism.”