As tensions between China and the United States have escalated in recent years, June 4 has become an increasingly important date for American political leaders, especially ones who are hawkish on China. On that day in 1989, Chinese security forces killed thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. While any mention of that massacre is verboten in China, American politicians generally mark the occasion with a flurry of statements condemning the Chinese Communist Party and its authoritarian state.