Hong Kong uni covers up Tiananmen crackdown slogan

Construction workers stand next to Chinese characters reading “cold blood” on the ground as they use metal sheeting to cover up one of the last public tributes in Hong Kong to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. Pic/AFP

A leading Hong Kong university on Saturday covered a painted slogan commemorating China's Tiananmen Square crackdown, the latest instance of a public June 4 memorial being removed in China-ruled Hong Kong. A journalist saw about a dozen construction workers erect grey metal construction hoardings around a "martyrs slogan" painted across the length of the University of Hong Kong's (HKU) Swire bridge. The slogan, painted on the pavement, read, "The souls of the martyrs shall forever linger despite the cold-blooded massacre. The spark of democracy shall forever glow for the demise of evil."

Asked why the university, which took down a "Pillar of Shame" Tiananmen statue in December, covered the 20-character slogan, an HKU spokesperson said by email, "The University of Hong Kong regularly conducts maintenance works at various locations and facilities, with the above site being one such project." For over three decades, it has been a tradition for students at HKU to repaint the slogan on the bridge before the anniversary of 1989 crackdown.

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