Beijing is strengthening its hold on Hong Kong a little more. The “Pillar of Shame”, a statue paying homage to victims of the Tiananmen crackdown, was removed from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on Thursday after 24 years on the scene, removing a symbol of freedoms which enjoyed the city before 2020.
“The decision on the old statue was made on the basis of external legal advice and a risk assessment in the best interest of the UniversityThe HKU said in a statement, as groups and venues commemorating the June 4, 1989 crackdown in Beijing have come under the draconian national security law imposed by the Chinese government.
Representing a tangle of 50 bodies, distorted by pain, The Pillar of Shame is the work of Danish artist Jens Galschiot. On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the latter judged “strange” and “shocking“That the university attack the sculpture he has offered to buy back, fearing that it will be destroyed. He has yet to receive a response.
The removal of the statue has also been criticized by pro-democracy activists on social media. “Shame on the University of Hong Kong for destroying the history and collective memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre. You should be doomed to the pillar of shame“, wrote Brian Leung, an exiled pro-democracy activist in the United States.