Universities in Hong Kong on Friday removed more memorials to the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1989, which focused on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong removed the statue “Goddess of Democracy”, A statue based on a figure created by art students and brought to the square shortly before the crackdown, in which hundreds, if not thousands of people died.
The removal of the monuments reflected the efforts of the Communist Party, which governs China, to erase the violent episode from the public’s memory. It also coincided with a persecution of the pro-democracy movement that challenged China’s power in Hong Kong.
A monument at the University of Hong Kong was dismantled on Thursday, destroying one of the last places in the city to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown.
The government has never given a death toll, and the pro-democracy movement remains a taboo subject in mainland China. Hong Kong and Macao, two semi-autonomous territories, were the only places on Chinese soil where events to commemorate the event were allowed, until the authorities banned annual vigils for the past two years.
In a statement, the Chinese University confirmed the removal of the statue and said that it had never authorized its exhibition and that no organization had claimed its maintenance and management.
For its part, Lingnan University also removed a bas-relief mural dedicated to the memory of the June 4 movement.
The university attributed the decision to the “general protection of the university community after a recent evaluation”According to Hong Kong Radio Television, a government-run media outlet.
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