HONG KONG—It happened in the dead of night. Workers at the University of Hong Kong put up barriers that largely blocked their activity from view and, over the next several hours, took the towering “Pillar of Shame” statue and carted it away in a container truck early Thursday . The 26-foot-tall sculpture, which was removed in parts, commemorated the victims of China’s 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Its removal is testament to the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to erase the bloody events of that day from the public consciousness. It also comes as the party snuffs out democratic challenges in Hong Kong to its rule. Together, they signal the different future that lies ahead for the city of 7.4 million people. The ‘Pillar of Shame’ There is more than one Pillar of Shame in the world. It is a series of works by Danish sculptor Jens …