Statue to Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo erected in Hong Kong’s Times Square despite protest from building’s owner

League of Social Democrats goes ahead with unveiling to pro-democracy icon despite letter from lawyers saying it had not asked permission and was breaking the law

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Leung Kwok-hung (left), Avery Ng, chairman of the League of Social Democrats, Albert Ho, president of Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, and “Bull” Tsang Kin-shing, attend the unveiling of the Liu Xiaobo statue in Times Square, Causeway Bay. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 5:41pm, 12 Jun 2018Updated: 10:23pm, 12 Jun 2018

Hong Kong activists unveiled a statue of late Chinese pro-democracy icon Liu Xiaobo outside a popular shopping centre on Tuesday, despite being asked to leave the area by the building’s owner.

The group called on the management of Times Square to allow them to stay until July 13 – the first anniversary of the death Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu – and said they would leave the site afterwards.

“Times Square is really the place where we can meet the most mainland tourists … not many of them have heard of Liu Xiaobo because of the censorship in China,” League of Social Democrats chairman Avery Ng Man-yuen said.

“I really hope the management of the mall could show some kindness and allow us to stay for just one more month.”

A child places a flower on the statue of Liu Xiaobo in Times Square. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The unveiling of the 1.5 metre statue in Causeway Bay, which cost HK$170,000 (US$21,700) and was donated by an unnamed citizen, came days after managers at the mall instructed their lawyers to ask the activists to leave the public space.

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