A monument at a Hong Kong university that commemorates the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre was removed by workers yesterday over the objections of its Danish creator.
The 8m Pillar of Shame, which depicts 50 torn and twisted bodies piled on top of each other, was created by sculptor Jens Galschiot to symbolize the lives lost during the bloody military crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Workers barricaded the monument at the University of Hong Kong on Wednesday night.
Photo: AFP
Drilling sounds and loud clanging could be heard coming from the boarded-up site, which was patrolled by guards.
The removal happened in the same week that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) traveled to Beijing to report on developments in the territory, where authorities have silenced dissent following the implementation of a sweeping National Security Law that appeared to target democracy advocates following mass protests in 2019.
The Pillar of Shame became an issue in October, with the university demanding that it be removed, even as rights advocates protested.
Galschiot offered to take it back to Denmark, provided he was given legal immunity that he would not be prosecuted under the security law, but has not succeeded so far.
“No party has ever obtained any approval from the university to display the statue on campus, and the university has the right to take appropriate actions to handle it at any time,” the university said in a statement yesterday.
“Latest legal advice given to the university cautioned that the continued display of the statue would pose legal risks to the university based on the Crimes Ordinance enacted under the Hong Kong colonial government,” it said.
Galschiot said he was only aware of what was happening to the sculpture on Wednesday from social media and other reports.
“We don’t know exactly what happened, but I fear they destroy it,” he said. “This is my sculpture and it is my property.”
Galschiot said that he would sue the university if necessary to protect the sculpture.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue
RSS