A statue that depicts a bloody crackdown on China’s student-led democracy movement in 1989 towers 8 meters over passers-by at the University of Hong Kong, but a student leader believes it is no longer Hongkongers’ responsibility to vindicate the victims.

“It is the responsibility of the Chinese people,” the university’s student union chief Kwok Wing-ho said in an interview with Apple Daily.

As an annual ritual, the student union will clean the statue, known as Pillar of Shame, and repaint a democracy slogan on a nearby bridge on campus. But growing anti-China sentiment among Hong Kong’s youth has resulted in different viewpoints over the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square incident, and Kwok said his group was following the tradition for slightly different purposes.

They were trying to “defend the truth” and exercise their freedom, rather than to call for changes in mainland China, he said.

“People did not give up in the past. Neither should we give up on freedoms on our campus,” he said.

Kwok’s feelings of detachment are not new. He is emblematic of a sense of “localism” among the city’s youth that emphasizes Hong Kong roots to the exclusion of a national identity, a sentiment that emerged a few years ago as many lost hope in Beijing and distanced themselves from the country.

“Activities about the memorial are meant to guard the truth. I think it is right, so I will continue to do it… Vindicating June 4 is the responsibility of the Chinese,” Kwok said.

The reddish Pillar of Shame statue portrays 50 torn and distorted faces to commemorate people who died in the crackdown. It was created by Danish artist Jens Galschchiøt and was first erected at the 1997 candlelight vigil in Victoria Park ahead of the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty from Britain to China.

The statue was subsequently moved to the campus of the university, situated in Pok Fu Lam, and has been kept intact for more than two decades following the handover.

At Polytechnic University, the school’s authorities recently covered a banner marking the crackdown. Its student union has been told any banners that are “sensitive” may be removed as a measure to avoid any breach of local laws.

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