Hong Kong U Removes Tiananmen Sq. Monument In Middle of the Night

In his novel, “1984,” George Orwell said:

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered…History has stopped. Nothing exists except the endless present in which the party is always right.

Any place where people focus on the state to run other people’s lives, this is the inevitable destination. It is happening in the U.S., and it is happening in once-free Hong Kong.

Tom Grundy reports for Hong Kong Free Press:

Workers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) removed the Tiananmen Massacre monument late on Wednesday night, months after the university said the statue must go.

Think about that: the monument honoring thousands killed and wounded by the Chinese communist “People’s Liberation Army” in its June 4, 1989, attack on freedom rally attendees in Beijing has stood at the Hong Kong university for more than two decades.

It is called The Pillar of Shame.

Imagine being so shameless that you would be part of the crew that tore it down, working behind curtains, at 11 p.m.

Grundy notes:

Jens Galschiøt’s Pillar of Shame monument has stood on campus for over two decades, though – in October – university authorities demanded its removal amid a crackdown on those commemorating the 1989 massacre.

And Grundy offers another dark aspect of this. According to the sculptor, the statue is not even a “public” statue supported by tax money. If it were, then it would be subject to all the back and forth argumentation that government-run systems create.

Danish artist Jens Galschiøt claims the pillar – a four-meter-high depiction of souls going to Heaven – as his private property.

In a statement on Thursday, he said: ‘I’m totally shocked that Hong Kong University is currently destroying the Pillar of Shame… It is my private property and the sculpture belongs to me personally… I will claim compensation for any damage to the sculpture.’

So, like the U.S. politicians and their hirelings who care not a whit about privately owned businesses, and will command them to shut down, sending swarms of cops and “officials” to be certain their edicts are observed and abided, the University of Hong Kong completely disregards the private property claim of the man who created the monument.

Collectivism in action: East and West.

The University of Hong Kong has shown utter contempt for the tragedy visited upon innocent people in 1989 and, to add to its perverse embrace of collectivism, it has ruined the private property of the man who created it. As Grundy observes:

Alvin Lum of CitizenNews reported that the university’s ruling body had agreed to that the statue would be demolished amid pressure from Beijing’s local offices.

And, indeed, the noise of rubble could be heard as the shameless employees did their vile work.

The issue of statues being torn down is prevalent around the world, often bringing attention to the so-called “wokeness” of those wanting the statues removed. But, to be slightly fair, in most of those cases, the statues are government-created and government-owned, thus pitting people against each other.

This not only appears to be private property, it memorializes the lives taken by the enemies of private property and self-ownership, the lives ended by the enemies of freedom and free will.

But there could be pushback. Perhaps people in Hong Kong are preparing to make replicas, and pepper them everywhere they can, any time, from now on.

Because the spirit of freedom cannot be extinguished, no matter how much agents of government try to tear it down.