Last Tiananmen monument removed in Hong Kong

A monument at Hong Kong University that was the city’s last public memorial to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was removed on Thursday, The Associated Press reported. 

The Pillar of Shame, which depicts 50 torn and twisted bodies piled on top of each other, was made by Danish sculptor Jens Galschioet to symbolize the lives lost in the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

Tension over the 26-foot statue peaked in October as activists and rights groups opposed the university’s demand to remove the statue following “the latest risk assessment and legal advice.”

In a statement, the university said the dismantled monument will be placed in storage because it could pose “legal risks” for the school, according to the AP. 

“No party has ever obtained any approval from the university to display the statue on campus, and the university has the right to take appropriate actions to handle it at any time,” Hong Kong University said in a statement. 

Galschioet offered to take it back to Denmark if he wasn’t prosecuted under China’s national security law, but has not succeeded in his attempt. 

”They are sending a signal to the students that it is over with the [Hong Kong] democracy movement and that it is over with free speech in Hong Kong,” the artist said in a statement. 

Galschioet also said he has been promised that the sculpture will be put in a park across from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and was offered places to display it in Norway, Canada and Taiwan, the AP reported. 

The removal of the sculpture comes days after pro-Beijing politicians won Hong Kong’s legislative elections in a landslide, following changes to the election laws allowing Beijing to vet candidates for loyalty. 

Each year on the anniversary of the massacre, the university’s now-defunct student union would wash the statute to commemorate the tragedy. Beijing, along with Macao, was the only Chinese city to allow commemorations of the crackdown.

In a statement, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said the removal of the statue was another worrying development for Hong Kong, the AP noted.

“The Danish government cannot decide which art other countries’ universities choose to exhibit. But for me and the government, the right to speak peacefully — through speech, art or other means — is a completely fundamental right for all people,” Kofod said. “This is also true in Hong Kong.”