A Hong Kong university on Saturday masked an inscription that paid tribute to the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown, weeks after similar works were removed from various campuses in the city.
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Hong Kong was for a long time with Macao the only place in China where the commemoration of the massacre of June 4, 1989 in Beijing was tolerated.
But Beijing left its authoritarian mark on the former British colony after massive and sometimes violent protests in 2019, imposing a national security law that criminalized virtually any form of dissent.
In December, the "
Pillar of Shame
", a statue in memory of Tiananmen, was unbolted on the campus of the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
The following day, sculptures commemorating the 1989 pro-democracy movement had been removed from two other universities in the city.
On Saturday, on the HKU campus, a large inscription in tribute to the "
martyrs
" of Tiananmen, which had so far escaped censorship, was hidden with sheet metal.
An AFP reporter saw workers covering up this graffiti which read: "
The heroic spirit of martyrs slaughtered in cold blood will live on forever, the fire of democracy that defeats evil will never be extinguished
."
According to media reports, this sentence was written on the floor of a footbridge shortly after the Tiananmen events.
Every year since then, student leaders have painted the letters white as a sign of mourning.
Contacted by AFP, the HKU did not wish to say whether the inscription had been definitively erased.
A spokesperson, however, said the university “
regularly carries out maintenance work at various locations and facilities, with the aforementioned site being one such project
.”
Since Beijing took control of Hong Kong, dissenting voices have gradually died down on the city's campuses, once oases of freedom spared from the censorship that permeates mainland China's faculties.
Demonstrations were banned, many student unions blacklisted, and new “
national security
” courses instituted.
For 30 years, a candlelight vigil has been held in Hong Kong for the anniversary of Tiananmen, bringing together tens of thousands of people.
Authorities banned the last two vigils, key organizers were arrested for subversion, and a June 4, 1989 museum was closed.
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