Hong Kong: More universities remove Tiananmen monuments
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Monuments marking Beijing's 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen protests have been cleared from two more universities in Hong Kong — a day after a sculpture commemorating the victims was dismantled.
Two more Hong Kong universities removed public monuments honouring the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing.
A 6-meter (21-foot) replica of Chen Weiming's enormous statue that students had raised in Tiananmen Square was among the sculptures dismantled.
Another relief sculpture commemorating the Tiananmen Square crackdown, sculpted by Chen, was removed from Lingnan University in Hong Kong.
Activists and dissident artists had protested the removal of a statue commemorating the crackdown on Hong Kong's oldest university the day before.
Also read | Memorial commemorating victims of Tiananmen Square massacre removed from Hong Kong varsity
Demonstrations demanding more political liberties have erupted in Tiananmen Square.
Thousands of protesters slept in the square for weeks, but the military stepped in and opened fire in June.
According to the Chinese government, 200 civilians and a few dozen security officers were killed.
Other estimates have ranged from a few hundred to tens of thousands.
Hong Kong was once one of the only areas in China to allow public commemoration of the massacre, which is still a touchy subject in mainland China.
Last week, the 6.4-meter (20-foot) bronze "Goddess of Democracy" statue holding a flame aloft at Hong Kong's Chinese University was removed from a public piazza.
Last year, Beijing enacted a severe national security law in Hong Kong, making secession, subversion, terrorism, and cooperation with foreign forces illegal.
Activists claim that the law is being used to stifle civil society, imprison democracy activists, and restrict basic liberties.
(With inputs from agencies)