Two more Hong Kong Universities have removed works of art depicting Beijing’s deadly repression of 1989 in Tiananmen Square.
Removal will come a day later Hong Kong’s oldest university has removed the statue Named the Pillar of Shame to commemorate the events of 1989, it provoked protests from activists and dissident artists in the city and abroad.
Hong Kong was a place China Thousands of Tiananmen are still commemorated each year to mourn the hundreds of anti-Democrats killed by Chinese troops in 1989.
The city’s university campuses have perpetuated the memory of oppression, and statues commemorating the events are a clear example of the freedoms enjoyed by the semi-autonomous region.
But early Friday morning, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) removed the deity of democracy from its campus.
A 6.4-meter (21 ft) tall replica of Chen Weiming – a giant statue erected by students in Tiananmen Square – has become a powerful symbol of Hong Kong’s local democracy movement. At the same time, Lincoln University in Hong Kong removed another relief sculpture depicting the Tiananmen oppression.
The evictions took place on Christmas Eve, when most of the students were on vacation and leaving the campus.
The CUHK, which removed the “unauthorized statue” after an internal assessment, said the committees responsible for relocating the premises in 2010 were not functioning.
Lincoln University said it had removed the wall relief created by Chen “after reviewing and evaluating materials on campus that could pose legal and security risks to the university community.”
Destruction came again overnight – #CUHK People woke up and saw the statue of the Goddess of Democracy disappear, meanwhile a relief wall was removed on June 4 at Lincoln University. LingU said it was “in the public interest of the university community” and the CU had so far remained silent. pic.twitter.com/ME58jnnuG2
– Xinqi Su 琪 (@XinqiSu) December 24, 2021
Sen. Told the Hong Kong Free Press He will talk to his lawyers about dismissing his job.
“It’s a big pity,” he said. “I’m concerned about whether the monuments are damaged and where they are currently being kept. When I have more information, I will contact my lawyers in the United States to see if any legal action can be taken.
“They acted like a thief at night,” he told the AFP. “They feared exposure and setbacks for students and alumni.”
The move caused anguish among CUHK alumni.
Felix Zhou, a former Chinese university student and district councilor, said: “I feel depressed and shocked.
“This statue represents the open school environment. It’s a symbol of educational freedom … it makes people doubt that the school can still have free space and ensure that people can speak freely, ”he told Reuters.
Protesters and activists living abroad condemned the removal of the pillar of humiliation at the University of Hong Kong on Thursday.
“They have used this despicable act in an attempt to destroy this bloody chapter of history,” wrote Wang Tan, one of the Tiananmen student leaders imprisoned after the repression, now living in the United States, on Facebook.
Samuel Sue, leader of the campaign for Hong Kong, said: “Its creation in 1997 was an inscription for independence in Hong Kong; its destruction in 2021 will be a graveyard for independence in Hong Kong.
Beijing is transforming Hong Kong into its own dictatorial figure after two years of democratic protests, and it is effectively illegal to recall Tiananmen. Authorities have banned the annual candlelight vigil, which marks the June 4 crackdown, for the past two years, citing security and epidemic fears.
Activists believe the Tiananmen massacre had no official death toll but hundreds, perhaps thousands of people had been killed.
With Agencies France-Press
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