US Should 'face Up' To Its Own Rights Abuses: Beijing

China on Friday ripped into the United States' human rights record and told Washington to "look in the mirror" after America's top diplomat said he would honour those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Beijing urged the United States to "face up to its own serious human rights problems", foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would "honour the sacrifices of those killed 32 years ago" and continue to support Chinese rights activists.

Soldiers marched into Beijing and opened fire on local residents and student protesters on June 4, 1989, crushing a weeks-long wave of demonstrations calling for political change and curbs to official corruption.

With younger Chinese having no direct memories of the Tiananmen movement, Beijing has gone to exhaustive lengths to prevent commemorations, detaining activists and bringing livestreaming services down for "technical" reasons.

Social media users on the WeChat and Weibo platforms were prevented from posting the candle emoji Friday, while searches for "64" – the date of the crackdown – are routinely blocked on the Twitter-like Weibo.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang on Friday said the US needed to hold itself to account for a range of abuses, from minorities to its treatment of migrants.

"Considering its irrefutable misdeeds on human rights, what qualifies the United States to lecture others?" he said. (AFP)