Hong Kong university removes Tiananmen Square monument from campus

The artwork, of anguished human torsoes, is one of the few remaining public memorials in the former British colony to remember the bloody crackdown that is a taboo topic in China.

A leading Hong Kong university has dismantled and removed a statue from its campus site that for more than two decades has commemorated pro-democracy protesters killed during China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, Reuters witnesses said.

The artwork, of anguished human torsoes, is one of the few remaining public memorials in the former British colony to remember the bloody crackdown that is a taboo topic in mainland China, where it cannot be publicly commemorated.

The Council of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) said in an early Thursday statement it made the decision to remove the statue at a meeting on Wednesday, “based on external legal advice and risk assessment for the best interest of the University.”

“The HKU Council has requested that the statue be put in storage, and that the University should continue to seek legal advice on any appropriate follow-up action,” it said.

Late on Wednesday night, security guards placed yellow barricades around the eight-meter (26-foot) high, two-tonne copper sculpture called the “Pillar of Shame” that commemorates those killed by Chinese authorities more than three decades ago.

Two Reuters journalists saw scores of workmen in yellow hard hats enter the statue site, which had been draped on all sides by white plastic sheeting and was being guarded by dozens of security personnel.

Loud noises from power tools and chains emanated from the closed off area for several hours before workmen were seen carrying out the top half of the statue and winching it up on a crane towards a waiting shipping container.

A truck later drove the container away early on Thursday. The site of the statue was covered in white plastic sheets and surrounded by yellow barricades.