Beijing, June 4 (TIWN) A livid China on Tuesday likened US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's criticism about the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protest to "deranged babbling" that would end up in the "trash can of history".

As tensions increased between Washington and Beijing over a range of issues, a hawkish Pompeo asked China to reveal the number of people killed at a "pro-democracy" protest brutally clamp downed by the Chinese authorities in 1989.

Pompeo's comments came on the 30th anniversary of the protest, an event that the Chinese government fears the repeat of and does not want its people to talk or read about it.

It was on June 4, 1989, when the Chinese Army tanked moved in at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, firing at pro-democracy protesters camping at the site since April that year.