Set memorial of the Tiananmen massacre in Oslo – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
The “Pillar of Shame” statue was erected outside the University of Hong Kong in 1997.
The eight-meter-high monument was a memorial to the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989.
In December last year, the statue was removed by the university at the request of the Chinese authorities.
On 25 May, another version of the statue will be unveiled at the Faculty of Law in Oslo.
Here he must stand for a little under a month.
The erection of the memorial in Oslo is a collaboration between Amnesty International Norway, the Hong Kong Committee in Norway and the Danish artist Jens Galschiøt.
The statue that comes to Oslo has previously stood before the Folketing in Copenhagen.
It creates great political reactions from Chinese authorities, says Secretary General John Peder Egenæs in Amnesty Norway.
– So we expect that the Chinese authorities will dislike this very strongly.
Demanded the statue be removed
Until the statue was removed from the University of Hong Kong, the special administrative region was the only city in China where the victims of the massacre could be honored.
In 2020 and 2021, the markings were prevented, officially due to the pandemic.
– There is no doubt about why the statue will be taken down now, says Egenæs.
He believes Chinese authorities are trying to remove the incident in 1989 from people’s memory.
When a version of the statue was erected in Copenhagen, the Chinese embassy demanded that he be removed.
It appears in a telephone report such as the administration in Copenhagen, which is quoted by Jyllandsposten.
The embassy believed the statue would support Chinese tourists in the city and create a bad relationship between Denmark and China.
In addition, they claimed that the statue was a security risk, because it could lead to riots.
Despite the inquiries from the embassy, the statue, which is not being sent to Oslo, was left standing.
Egenæs reckons it will also create reactions from the Chinese embassy in Norway.
– We live in a country with freedom of expression, so they have to put up with it.
– Not contrary to China’s core interests
In 2016, Norway and China signed a new agreement to normalize relations between them, after several years with an icy front.
The reason for this was that Norway gave the Peace Prize to the Chinese regime critic Liu Xiaobo.
The agreement has been criticized for delimiting Norway’s room for maneuver above China. The reason is that the agreement states that Norway must respect China’s core interests.
According to the agreement, it is Norway’s responsibility not to make the situation more acidic again.
Secretary General Egenæs believes that the erection of this statue does not contravene this agreement.
– Can the Chinese authorities say that this is a breach of this agreement?
– They may try, but then I really get the Norwegian authorities to stand up and do what they claim they can do despite this agreement, namely criticize China for its human rights violations.
– Must take a tougher stand
The anniversary of the massacre will be marked by the statue in the University Garden in Oslo.
– I think Norway must take a tougher stance and revalue its relationship with China.
It’s Steven Huiching Yip, who is deputy chair of the Hong Kong Committee in Norway. He said that it is not possible to hold such a celebration in Hong Kong no.
– It is very sad that we can no longer do that in Hong Kong.
He thinks the statue reminds us that it is students who sacrifice the most for freedom and democracy.
It was students who started the protests at Tiananmen Square, and it was students who started protesting in 2019, he says.
Want to remind of shameful events
The original statue was made by the Danish artist Jens Galschiøt.
The statue in Hong Kong is one of four statues in Galschiøt’s art series that will remind and warn people of what he describes as shameful events that should never have happened.
In 2020, the artist put up a version of «Skamsøyla» leading the Folketing in Copenhagen.
The statue was to show support for the people of Hong Kong after the Chinese authorities introduced a new national security law.
The law gave the government the right to crack down on critics of the Chinese government in the territory.
– Will not stop the development
NRK is in contact with the Chinese embassy in Oslo, which responds in an e-mail.
They write, among other things, that democracy and freedom “are fundamental rights that the Chinese people enjoy”.
The Chinese embassy further claims that “certain institutions will not open their eyes to facts and truth”, and that these “several times have blackened China and interfered in the country’s affairs, under the guise of human rights”.
– China will not stop the development due to isolated noise, it says in the e-mail.
Finally, the embassy writes that they hope and believe that the Norwegian people “will not be fooled by these individuals”, but are interested in “learning more about a genuine and colorful China, with an objective and rational attitude”.