Members of Congress and Chinese pro-democracy dissidents gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday to mark the 35th anniversary of the day some 200,000 Chinese troops launched a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters occupying Tiananmen Square. Several Chinese dissidents and a group of bipartisan members of Congress, including former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, gathered outside the Capitol to condemn the massacre.

The Tiananmen anniversary comes amid mounting concern in Washington over China’s current military buildup and the prospect that Beijing could order a military invasion of the U.S.-backed island democracy of Taiwan.

A separate event held Tuesday night in Washington saw former U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger host a salon-style dinner near the White House to discuss the upcoming release of his new book, “The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan.”

Mr. Pottinger, a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, told journalists that a Taiwan invasion “is deterrable,” but will require the development of a more robust military strategy for Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe to pursue collectively. “It is really important,” he said, “to prepare for the invasion scenario.”

The U.S. and China are taking turns wooing Cambodia’s West Point-educated prime minister with guns, money and security assurances, but the Chinese appear to be scoring most of the rewards in the geopolitical tug-of-war.

Special Correspondent Richard S. Ehrlich has a dispatch from neighboring Thailand, writing that Cambodia has become a case study in the fierce rivalry for friends and influence across the region between Washington and Beijing. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Phnom Penh on Tuesday for talks just after China’s massive military exercise with the Cambodian army. Washington has watched with concern in recent years as Cambodia deepens its economic and security ties with Beijing.

Mr. Austin met with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the English-speaking, Western-educated son of longtime Cambodian strongman Hun Sen. Hun Manet was the first Cambodian cadet to graduate from West Point in 1999, 24 years after Mr. Austin graduated in 1975.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, widely regarded as a Hindu nationalist, is set to become the first Indian leader to hold office for three terms. But the vote count in India’s election suggests a surprisingly strong challenge to Mr. Modi and his long-dominant BJP party from the main opposition Indian National Congress, as well as other parties.

Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon digs into the surprising outcome, writing that while Mr. Modi himself looks secure, he is almost certain to end up presiding over a parliament where his BJP-led coalition has lost its absolute majority and will need coalition partners to govern.

The most terrifying part of artificial intelligence is an omnipresence that can reach anyone without them knowing they were targeted, according to Kathleen Noyes, who leads the FBI’s next-generation technology and lawful access section.

“Every single one of you has … brushed it,” Ms. Noyes said Tuesday at an AI conference hosted by General Dynamics Information Technology. “You may not even know that you brushed it. You may not even know that perhaps you were the target. So I think that, to me, is the scariest part.”

The FBI’s Cynthia Kaiser told the conference that digital adversaries, ranging from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia to cybercriminals, use AI to be more efficient, to make their lies more believable and to avoid detection. “They’re developing code to evade malware detection to learn about a system so they can just stay hidden more,” Ms. Kaiser said.

The likelihood of a nuclear war “goes up a little bit every year,” says former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who warns that the number of conflicts now raging across the globe coupled with the sheer number of nations equipped with the world’s deadliest weapons constitutes a uniquely dangerous dynamic.

During an appearance Tuesday on “The Washington Brief” — a monthly forum hosted by The Washington Times Foundations — Mr. Gingrich said the Russia-Ukraine war is one of several theaters where a nuclear weapon could come into play. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin could resort to such extremes if faced with near-certain defeat, though such an outcome looks unlikely in the short term as Russian troops gain ground in eastern Ukraine.

Former President Trump and President Biden should have a serious debate on the emerging U.S.-China Cold War, taxes and immigration, writes economist and national columnist Peter Morici, who emphasizes that China “poses both security and economic challenges.”

“In any budget and tax conversation, we should confront how much we must spend to build our Navy and other forces necessary to secure the South Pacific and our vital source of high-end semiconductors in Taiwan,” he writes. On immigration, Mr. Morici argues that “admitting more legal immigrants to permit monthly job growth of 200,000 would enable annual GDP growth closer to 3% instead of 2% and greatly ease our budget woes.”

“We can’t have homeless encampments overwhelming our major cities, but we need a dispassionate conversation about skills-focused immigration reform, housing and assimilation to enable more economic growth,” he writes.

• June 5 — The Crisis in Georgia and Its Implications for the Black Sea Region, Hudson Institute.

• June 6 — Mexico’s Elections: Outcomes and Implications, Wilson Center.

• June 6 — The Day After Conflict: Women’s Meaningful Participation in Post-War Ukraine, U.S. Institute of Peace.

• June 7 — Taiwan’s central role in the global economy, The Brookings Institution.

• June 10 — U.S.-South Korea Bilateral Dialogue for Strengthening the US-ROK Alliance, Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

• June 11 — Hostile Intent: UAE Subversion & Transnational Repression, International Human Rights Advisors.

• June 11 — A Pivotal Year: Assessing the Russia-Ukraine War in 2024, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.