The decision to take down the “Pillar of Shame,” an enduring symbol of the territory’s pro-democracy movement, was another sign of Beijing’s crackdown.
The authorities in Hong Kong on Thursday removed a statue that memorialized those killed in the 1989 government massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing, the latest crackdown on political dissent in the Chinese territory. The 26-foot copper statue, known as the “Pillar of Shame,” was created by the Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot in 1996 and shows a pile of naked corpses arranged into what looks like a ghastly obelisk. It commemorates the June 4, 1989, massacre of pro-democracy students and workers around Tiananmen Square by the Chinese government. The Tiananmen massacre is among the most delicate topics in Chinese politics and has been largely erased from history on the Chinese mainland.
