The territory has long been the only place in China where it was possible to pay tribute to the victims of Tiananmen’s repression, but Beijing intends to print its authoritarian brand on the former British colony.
Le Monde with AFP
A statue paying tribute to the victims of Tiananmen’s repression was withdrawn from the University of Hongkong (HKU), after 24 years of presence at the scene, said, Thursday, December 23, the leaders of the University .
“The decision on the old statue was taken on the basis of an external legal opinion and a risk assessment for the best interest of the university,” the institution declared in a statement, while Groups and places commemorating the repression of 4 June 1989 became the target of the Draconian National Security Act imposed by Beijing.
Hong Kong has long been the only place in China where the commemoration of Tiananmen events of 1989 was tolerated. Each year, HKU students were clearing the statue installed on their campus in 1997 to honor the victims of these events. But Beijing has printed its authoritarian brand on the former British colony after the great and sometimes violent manifestations of 2019, imposing a law on national security that prohibits, among other things, the commemoration of Tiananmen.
In October, the leaders of the University of Hongkong had ordered the withdrawal of this 8 meter high sculpture, named the “pillar of shame”, representing a fifty body distorted by the pain, quoting already Legal risks, without mentioning which.
a “shocking” act for its sculptor
The statue was protected from the eyes Wednesday night before being unbulked on Thursday morning to be stored elsewhere, assured the university. In his communiqué, the institution ensures that no one had obtained the formal authorization to expose this statue and cited a criminal order dating from the colonial era to justify his withdrawal. This law includes the crime of sedition and has recently been increasingly used by the authorities – alongside the new National Security Act – to criminalize dissent.
While workers were busy around the statue in the night, the author of the statue, the Danish Jens Galschiot, interviewed by the France-Press agency (AFP), found “strange” and “shocking “That university take the sculpture, which, in his opinion, remains a private property. “This sculpture is really expensive. So if they destroy it, then of course, we will continue,” he added, “It’s not fair”.
m. Galschiot says he tried to contact the university with the help of lawyers and offered to resume his work. He also ensures that HKU officials have never contacted or warned the dismantling of the statue. The artist sent an e-mail to his support to ask “documenting everything that can happen to the sculpture”.
For 30 years, a candlelight was organized in Hongkong, attracting tens of thousands of people. With its slogans for democracy and for the end of the unique party in China, this appointment was a symbol of political freedoms enjoyed by the former British colony. The authorities have prohibited the last two evenings, citing as reasons the pandemic and security issues.