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23 Apr 2014
Controversial Tiananmen Square museum opens this week
BY
Jason Holland
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Tiananmen Square was the scene for a massacre in 1989, with estimates of a death toll running from the hundreds up to several thousands
photo: Shutterstock
The world's first museum about the Tiananmen Square massacre is set to open in Hong Kong this week. Commemorating the pro-democracy protesters killed in Beijing in 1989, the museum is funded by the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which also organises the annual June 4 candlelit vigil in Hong Kong.
The 74sq m (797sq ft) permanent exhibition, in the commercial district of East Tsim Sha Tsui, will display images from the protests and the military crackdown, as well as a replica statue of the Goddess of Democracy, which was originally erected at Tiananmen Square by protesters.
However, the controversial project could run into a legal battle, with the owners of the office tower in which it is housed threatening to take action. They say the museum violates the property deed and because of its political nature, could cause nuisance to tenants. The alliance bought the fifth floor of the office building for US$1.25m (€903,146, £744,443) in December 2013.
Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of the alliance, remains confident the museum will still open – and stay open – but his stated aim to “drive people to fight for democracy in China” is expected to attract further controversy.
“By letting [people] remember and letting them know what actually happened, they will have anger towards [China’s] Communist Party – which in order to preserve its power, went to the extent of shooting its own people. This should not be tolerated by our mainland compatriots,” he told local reporters.
Since 1997, Hong Kong has been a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, but retains its own administrative and common law framework.
The Chinese government condemned the Tiananmen Square protests as a "counter-revolutionary riot", and has prohibited all forms of discussion or remembrance of the events in mainland China.
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