China forces Thai art show to remove, change works

Claims exhibit distorts Chinese policies on Tibet, Xinjiang, HK

BEIJING — China on Monday accused organizers of an exhibition in Thailand of distorting Chinese policies on Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong (HK) after the show’s co-curator said artworks were removed or altered at Beijing’s request.

The exhibition, which opened on July 24, “promoted the fallacies of so-called ‘Tibetan independence,’ ‘the East Turkestan Islamic Movement,’ and ‘Hong Kong independence,’” distorted China’s policies and “undermined China’s core interests and political dignity,” the foreign ministry said in its replies to Reuters questions about the show.

The Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre, one of Thailand’s top galleries, removed or altered artworks on Hong Kong as well as the Chinese government’s treatment of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang at the request of the Chinese embassy.

The foreign ministry neither confirmed nor denied that the Chinese embassy was behind the removal and alteration.

When Reuters visited the exhibit on Thursday last week, some works previously advertised and photographed had been removed, including a multimedia installation by a Tibetan artist, while other pieces had been altered, with the words “Hong Kong,” “Tibet,” and “Uyghur” redacted, along with the names of the artists.

Three days after the show opened on July 24, Chinese embassy staff, accompanied by Bangkok city officials, “entered the exhibition and demanded its shut down,” said the exhibit’s co-curator, Sai, a Myanmar artist who goes by one name.

In a July 30 e-mail seen by Reuters, the gallery said: “Due to pressure from the Chinese Embassy — transmitted through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and particularly the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, our main supporter — we have been warned that the exhibition may risk creating diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China.”

The e-mail said the gallery had “no choice but to make certain adjustments,” including obscuring the names of the Hong Kong, Tibetan and Uyghur artists.

Several days later, Sai told Reuters, the embassy demanded further removals.

China has been building its influence in Southeast Asia, where governments tread cautiously as they balance cooperation with the regional economic giant against concerns over political sovereignty.

Beijing recently sought unsuccessfully to block screenings in New Zealand of a Philippine documentary on that country’s struggles in contested parts of the South China Sea amid alleged harassment from the Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia, local media reported. It was pulled from a film festival in the Philippines in March due to “external factors,” the filmmakers said.

The Bangkok show, Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity, had a theme of authoritarian governments and featured multiple works by artists in exile.

The co-curator, the gallery, and Thailand’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration referred Reuters to the gallery, which did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. A gallery representative at the exhibit said the team had agreed not to comment on the issue.

“The fact that the relevant country took timely measures precisely shows that the promotion of the fallacies of ‘Tibetan independence,’ ‘East Turkestan Islamic Movement,’ and ‘Hong Kong independence’ has no market internationally and is unpopular,” the ministry said.

China is against anyone “using the guise of cultural and artistic exchange to engage in political manipulation and interfere in China’s internal affairs,” it added.

‘AUTHORITARIAN PRESSURE’
Rights groups say China carries out a sophisticated campaign of harassment against critics overseas that has often extended into the art world, allegations Beijing has denied.

Sai, co-founder of Myanmar Peace Museum, the organization that put together the exhibition, said the removed pieces included Tibetan and Uyghur flags and postcards featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as a postcard depicting links between China and Israel.

“It is tragically ironic that an exhibition on authoritarian cooperation has been censored under authoritarian pressure,” he said. “Thailand has long been a refuge for dissidents. This is a chilling signal to all exiled artists and activists in the region.”

Sai said he was speaking from overseas, where he had fled after Thai police sought to find him. The superintendent of Pathumwan Police Station, who oversees the gallery’s Bangkok neighborhood, told Reuters he had received no reports of such an incident.

Thailand this year returned to China 40 Uyghurs, members of a mainly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, in a secretive deportation. UN experts had warned they would be at risk of torture, ill-treatment and “irreparable harm.” China denies abusing Uyghurs.

The Bangkok exhibition also features works by artists in exile from Xinjiang as well as Russia, Iran, and Syria. — Reuters