Empty original: https://www.elperiodico.com/es/internacional/20211223/universidad-hong-kong-retira-estatua-13021502
The withdrawal of the emblem against Chinese repression is the last setback to the diminished freedoms of British excolonia
de Hong Kong. PETER PARKS (AFP)
The oldest University of Hong Kong has retired a statue in memory of the victims of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, In the last setback to the freedoms of this city.
"La decisión sobre la envejecida estatua se basó en consejos legales externos y en una evaluación de riesgos para el mejor interés de la universidad", Hong Kong University has indicated (HKU) In a statement.
La operación nocturna para retirar la estatua fue condenada por activistas prodemocracia de Hong Kong y un exestudiante que sobrevivió la matanza de Tiananmen la calificó como un "acto despreciable".
The sculpture, called Pilar de la Shame, eight meters high and the work of Danish Jens Galschiot, He was on the university campus since 1997, year in which the British excolonia was returned to China by the United Kingdom.
In October this year, Establishment officials ordered to remove sculpture, in which they are represented 50 anguished faces and lacerated bodies stacked on each other, in tribute to the protesters prodacracy killed by Chinese troops around the Plaza de Tiananmen, in 1989.
Opacity
University staff placed plastic sheets from the ground to the top of the monument and barriers so that it could not be seen. Throughout the night the work noises and metal sounds were heard, An AFP journalist found at the scene. Security guards prevented reporters from approaching, while trying not to record video images.
Masonions with work helmets were seen maneuvering a crane to move a wide section of the sculpture, Wrapped in plastic, Towards a nearby container.
The University of Hong Kong withdrew a sculpture that commemorated the demonstration of 1989 In Tiananmen's Square
In its statement, The institution assured that the statue would be stored. The University also alleges that it never gave formal authorization to expose this statue and base its withdrawal in a criminal ordinance of the colonial era.
This law includes sedition crime and, together with the National Security Law imposed on 2020 By Beijing, It has been used recently by the authorities to criminalize dissent.
Possible sculptor's demand
For your part, Galschiot indicó a la AFP que era "extraño" y "chocante" that the university was to get the work, that according to this one continues to be owned. "Es una escultura muy cara. If they destroy it, por supuesto que los voy a demandar", explained.
The Danish sculptor says he has tried to contact the university several times through his lawyers and offered to recover his work. But he regrets that the university managers never contacted him or warned him of the withdrawal.
Dissidents abroad condemned the withdrawal of the statue. "Usaron este acto despreciable para intentar borrar este sangriento capítulo de la historia", wrote on Facebook Wang Dan, One of Tiananmen's student leaders who was imprisoned after repression and now lives in Undios states.
Nathan Law, A former prodemocracy of Hong Kong who fled last year to the United Kingdom, He assured that the statue will live in the memory of the people. "El pilar de la vergüenza fue retirado, But memory remains. We must remember what happened the 4 de junio de 1989", Law wrote on Twitter.
For years, Hong Kong was the only place in China where the commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre was tolerated, commemorating each 4 July with a watch with candles in a central park of this International Financial Center.
Several activists who participated in the first forbidden vigil of 2020 They were convicted in recent months to promote and participate in an unauthorized meeting.
