9mo ago

"A strong signal to China": Model of the "Pillar of Shame," a memorial to the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, was unveiled outside the European Parliament in Brussels

edition.cnn.com ‘Pillar of Shame’ Tiananmen memorial erected outside European Parliament | CNN

A model of the “Pillar of Shame,” which was controversially removed from a Hong Kong university in 2021, has gone on display in front of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Depicting a heap of contorted bodies and screaming faces, the statue was unveiled Tuesday as part of an exhibition of “forbidden art” that organizers said had been censored or “deemed subversive” by Hong Kong and mainland China.

The exhibition was hosted by Jens Galschiøt, the Danish artist behind the famous sculpture, and Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, a member of the European Parliament (MEP). A further six MEPs, including representatives from each of the parliament’s five largest political coalitions, were listed as co-hosts.

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That's good, however it's again just symbolism. A real signal would be to begin cutting ties with China on a path to end our economical dependency on them.
- Rich people never do anything financially adverse so virtue signaling is the only thing that works for them.
- In theory yes, in practice we should then also cut ties with every other nation that committed a massacre or oppressed its population, which… checks notes… would be almost every nation.
  Why not Turkey for the Armenian Genocide, why not Australia for the treatment of aboriginal people, why not the USA and Canada for the treatment of indigenous people? Why not Great Britain for conquering half of the planet and enslaving people?
  
  There's a bit of a difference between the likes of Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, etc, who committed atrocities primarily in the days of colonialsm and have since drastically changed — they've acknowledged what they've done, and to my knowledge apologised for it — and China.
  China hasn't become less authoritarian since the massacre, doesn't acknowledge it even happened, and certainly hasn't apologised. The sad truth is, they'd likely do it all over again. Because they're just as bad now as they were then.
  I hate the "but whatabout..." whenever someone calls out China on murdering their civilians and even committing an ongoing genocide.
  If you actually think China and nations such as Britain, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, etc are the same, you frankly need to get your head examined.
  
  Nobody is saying you have to be perfect. Obviously every past society has flaws and pockmarks. The point is acknowledging past wrongs and seeking reconciliation and seeking to improve.
  Denying atrocities makes atrocities worse, because it means you will repeat the errors.
  
  why not cut ties because of the people in power? people in power today are not the ones that made these crimes, ~~except china~~ i'm stupid
  
  And also excepting Israel, Kongo, Russia, UAE, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan and still the USA.
  And on a side note Xi Jinping, the man in power today, didn’t do the TS massacre, he came to power in 2012
  
  Most of these sound quite reasonable, if i think about it.
  
  These were just in the front of my mind at that moment and while it would be morally good if we could flip the finger to them, it would be really stupid. Just losing Russian gas already caused an energy crisis and inflation, completely refusing middle eastern oil, Congolese Cobalt, Copper, Silver, Gold, Diamonds, Uranium etc and the general relations with the USA, a close ally and country with the probably biggest military would not just be crisis-inducing, it would be economical and political suicide.
  
  to be fair losing russian gas accelerated the adoption of better energy sourge at record speed, so it's really was a bad thing?
  
  So he should have no problem acknowledging the issue and seeking reconciliation.
  
  Yeah! I mean, if things were shit it in the past it seems silly to do anything to fix it now! Duh! 🤪
  /s, obviously…
  
  Where do you take that from? What I’m saying is that these populist dogpiling calls are nonsense, because most nations have a similar oppressive history and/or present. Why must we put up a trade ban on exclusively China for not apologizing for the TS massacre, but not on turkey for the Armenian genocide? If it’s about todays oppression and exploitation why exclusively China and not UAE, Qatar, Israel or Congo? If it’s about supposedly threatening war, why exclusively China and not the USA? If it’s about spying, why exclusively China and not Russia or the USA? For each issue China has, there is at least one other nation doing the same for which we would never consider a similar treatment. Russia now has some trade restrictions, but not for its USSR crimes, not for spying, it took a full-fledged war for some rules (with tummy ache).
  
  It seems like the powers-that-be are trying to manufacture animosity toward China among the commoners. I guess that means they see China as a threat and want us to fight China for them. They'll do anything to distract from the class war but I know it wasn't the Chinese people that shipped jobs to China, it was the western capitalists.
- We'll see this finally happening when China attacks Taiwan.
- Inflation is bad enough as it is.
  Unless you're a shareholder or executive like the Arnault family pushing for protectionism in France, we will just be even poorer.

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