It’s a weird thing to latch onto, like rules lawyering when someone has most definitely broken the law, but the law doesn’t specifically mention the exact, detailed violation.
So he wasn’t in China at the exact same time a brave soul stood in front of a line of tanks. The social and psychic impact on the various territories lasted for years, just as 9/11 did in the US, and it would have been palpable when he did actually go there.
(I traveled through China more than a decade after Tiananmen, and it was still a raw nerve even then.)
eta: I owe @catsidhe a beverage
