Foreign Minister Marise Payne has offered a restrained rebuke of China on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, saying Australia "remains concerned" by the ruling Communist Party's ongoing political oppression.

Senator Payne's minimalist response was in stark contrast to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who saluted the "heroes of the Chinese people who bravely stood up thirty years ago in Tiananmen Square to demand their rights".