The eight-metre high "Pillar of Shame" by Jens Galschiot has sat on the University of Hong Kong's campus since 1997, the year the city was handed back to China.
Galschiot told AFP he had hired a local lawyer and requested a hearing with the university over the future of the pillar. Galschiot said he would prefer the statue to have stayed in the city. If it was destroyed by authorities, he said, Hong Kongers should collect "as many pieces of the Pillar of Shame as possible".
"Our legal advice is not intended as commentary on current or historical events," a spokesperson told AFP. Scores of opposition figures have been jailed or fled overseas and authorities have also embarked on a mission to rewrite history and make Hong Kong more "patriotic".