: How Hong Kong Is Dismantling the Memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre #WorldNEWS After months of debate over what to do with the Pillar of Shame, a statue commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen

Posted in: #WorldNEWS #BREAKING #PillarOfShame

How Hong Kong Is Dismantling the Memory of the Tiananmen Square Massacre #WorldNEWS
After months of debate over what to do with the Pillar of Shame, a statue commemorating the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre on the campus of the University of Hong Kong, workers arrived in the middle of the night—dismantling and removing it.
Reports started circulating on social media late Wednesday that security guards had erected plastic sheets and barricades around the statue and that construction work could be heard going on. Videos on social media showed the top being wrapped up and carried away, while the base was removed by crane.
Since its 1997 handover from British colony to semi-autonomous Chinese territory, Hong Kong had been one of the only places in China that openly marked the events of June 4, 1989—when tanks rolled into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and left what is believed to be hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, dead in a violent crackdown by the Chinese Communist Party.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=true]
More than 180,000 people were estimated to have gathered in Hong Kongs Victoria Park in 2019 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the crackdown. But following massive anti-government protests that year, Beijing has tightened control over Hong Kong. Caught up in the clampdown: Commemorations of the Tiananmen massacre.

#BREAKING whole area around the #PillarOfShame in #HKU has been covered up by white plastic sheets and surrounded by yellow boards. Lots of noises can be heard but security guards have been driving me away and asking me not to film, while refusing to answer what’s going on. pic. twitter. com/PgLl9XzHpK
— Xinqi Su (@XinqiSu) December 22, 2021

Dozens of pro-democracy figures are behind bars and many civil society groups, including the group that organized the annual Tiananmen vigil, have disbanded. The world’s only Tiananmen museum closed earlier this year over licensing issues.
The Tiananmen commemoration event has been banned for the last two years, with officials citing COVID-19 restrictions—although other large events have been allowed and nightclubs had been allowed to reopen a month before this years anniversary.

More from TIME

In December, eight activists were sentenced to jail for participating in the banned vigil, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who was given a 13-month jail sentence over charges that he incited others to take part in an unlawful assembly. Other prominent democracy figures like Albert Ho , the former chairman of the group that organized the annual gathering, have been jailed on charges relating to protests in 2019.

Kin Cheung–APThe Pillar of Shame statue, a memorial for those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, is displayed at the University of Hong Kong, Oct.