China’s Communist government has forced the removal of statues dedicated to the Tiananmen Square massacre. The Left and Right agree it’s symbolic of Chinese oppression.
Summary
The Tiananmen Square massacre last monument in Hong Kong, a city free from Communist China’s despotic rule until 2020, was removed from the campus of the University of Hong Kong.
- Another statue, “Goddess of Democracy” commemorating the lives lost during the 1989 pro-democracy protest, was removed from a different university campus earlier.
- The removal of the statues and attempt to erase any public memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre coincides with Communist China’s takeover of Hong Kong and the implementation of a repressive national security law meant to curb any dissent.
- The site of the Pillar of Shame statue at University of Hong Kong hosted an annual vigil to commemorate the massacre, but has been shut down by China’s Communist Party under the guise of COVID-19 restrictions.
- Before the removal of the statues, the Tiananmen Square massacre made the news with Disney self-censored by cutting an episode of The Simpsons making a joke of Communist China’s censorship from its streaming service in Hong Kong.
- In their reporting of the removal of statues, BBC said China “has been increasingly cracking down on political dissent” in the city the British gave up to China in 1997.
- CNN spoke with the artist who created the Pillar of Shame statue, saying he hopes to reclaim the statue and “place it in front of the Chinese Embassy” in Washington DC.
- The Washington Post quoted the creator of the Goddess of Democracy, who said the removal of the statues represent the “process of dismantling Hong Kong’s freedom and rule of law.”
- Conservative commentator Mark Steyn lamented the crackdown in Hong Kong, saying it is part of the Communist Chinese government’s continued attack on truth, citing the Party’s attempts to silence anyone sounding the alarm on COVID-19.
- The Wall Street Journal detailed the repressive tactics Chinese security officials used against a group that fought to keep the Pillar of Shame statue in place, jailing leaders for “not agreeing to hand over information” about the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China.
- Breitbart noted Communist China’s “brutal” erasure of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Hong Kong is part of the Party “breaking those promises of autonomy” when the United Kingdom transferred the city to China.
Author’s Take
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
