Thai gallery removes China-focused artworks after 'pressure' from Beijing
In what the artists called the latest attempt by Beijing to silence critics overseas, the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center changed multiple works by artists in exile in the exhibit on authoritarian governments collaborating across borders.
On Thursday, 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, "Constellation of Complicity: Visualizing the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity,' opened on July 24, Chinese Embassy staff, accompanied by Bangkok city officials, "entered the exhibition and demanded its shutdown,' said the exhibit's co-curator, Sai, a Myanmar artist who goes by one name.
In a July 30 email, 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."
Artist names have been blacked out after "pressure from the Chinese Embassy." |
REUTERS
The email 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 said, the embassy demanded further removals.
The Chinese Embassy in Bangkok and Foreign Ministry in Beijing, and Thailand's Foreign Ministry did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration did not respond to an email seeking comment. A gallery representative at the exhibit said the team had agreed not to comment on the issue.
'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.
People view the show at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center on Thursday. |
REUTERS
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 leader 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, said 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. U.N. 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.
An art installation at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center on Thursday |
REUTERS
China has been steadily increasing its influence in Southeast Asia, where governments are balancing cooperation with the regional giant against concerns over 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.
Black screen
Chinese officials returned to the Bangkok gallery on Wednesday, asked to remove another flyer and reiterated "enforcement of the One China policy,' Sai said, citing updates from contacts.
That policy, observed by governments that have relations with Beijing, acknowledges Beijing's position that the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing all of China, including Taiwan. China has never renounced the use of force over the self-governed island. Taiwan's government says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
Foreign governments refer to Tibet and Xinjiang as part of China.
The artists called the censorship Beijing's latest attempt to silence critics overseas. |
REUTERS
Works withdrawn from the Bangkok exhibit by Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron included video of Tibetans carrying Palestinian flags while calling for accountability for genocide and a film titled "Listen to Indigenous People."
The works were previously advertised, and Sai shared images of them previously on display.
"By forcing (the gallery) to remove significant parts of my work, the Chinese government has once again demonstrated that it desperately wishes to cut Tibetans off from the rest of the world,' said Paldron, adding that China did not "want its complicity in other colonialisms and genocides to be recognized.'
"Who are museums for?" he said. "They should be for the people, not dictators of any ideology."
Video monitors showed a black screen during a recent visit. A film by a Uyghur artist played, but there was a black mark where her name had been.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Taiwan foreign minister's visit puts damper on Japan-China relations
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-Lung's latest trip to Japan has put a damper on Sino-Japanese ties, with Beijing canceling at the last minute a bilateral meeting of agriculture ministers. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi avoided going into detail during a news conference Friday, stating only: "We understand that (the ministerial meeting) was not held due to scheduling conflicts of both sides." Chinese agriculture minister Han Jun was set to visit Japan to hold a meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi, on Tuesday, after a trilateral agriculture ministers' meeting involving the two nations plus South Korea held in Incheon near South Korea's capital, Seoul, on Monday. Many within the Japanese government consider Lin's Japan visit in late July to be the reason for the cancellation. The Taiwanese side has said that the foreign chief had made a personal visit to Japan. During the trip, however, he held talks with Keiji Furuya of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who heads a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers aiming for stronger Tokyo-Taipei relations, and other Japanese officials. In light of heightened tensions between China and the United States, Beijing has been pushing for improved ties with Japan. In autumn last year, China resumed its visa exemption for short-term stays by Japanese nationals. It announced in June this year the restart of imports of Japanese fishery products. The Chinese government has been especially sensitive about the Japanese government's historical perceptions and Taiwan issues due to it marking the 80th anniversary this year of its victory in the past war against Japan. A senior official at the Japanese Foreign Ministry said, "China had to take a strong response based on moves by Taiwan." Lin's trip may also impact Japan-China high-level talks expected to be held on the sidelines of a series of summits related to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia in October.
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Japan Times
On anniversary of WWII's end, China urges Japan to make the 'right choice'
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Japan to "make the right choice" and learn from history on Friday, the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. "Only by facing history squarely can respect be earned; only by drawing lessons from history can a better future be explored; only by remembering the past can straying onto the wrong path again be avoided. We urge Japan to make the right choice." the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as saying. Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, made the remarks at a news conference following his meeting with foreign ministers from Mekong River states, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. International documents such as the Potsdam Declaration clearly defined Japan's responsibility for the war and required it to return territories including Taiwan to China, Wang said. However, some in Japan are attempting to glorify its invasion and distort history, he said, calling such actions a challenge to the postwar international order. Also on Friday, Liu Jinsong, director-general of the Chinese ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, summoned Akira Yokochi, the No. 2 official at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and protested against visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine by Cabinet ministers of the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and others on the day, which marked the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in WWII. Yokochi explained Japan's position to Liu, according to the embassy. The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo also criticized the Yasukuni visits by the Japanese officials. The visits showed a wrong attitude toward the history of invasion, the embassy said, urging Japan to be prudent in speech and action over history issues and break away from militarism. Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and other Japanese politicians on Friday visited the Shinto shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals along with the war dead and is therefore regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism by neighboring countries such as China and South Korea. Ishiba offered a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine while refraining from paying a visit. On Friday, a spokesperson at South Korea's Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed "deep disappointment and regret" at visits and ritual offerings to the shrine by "responsible leaders of Japan," while stopping short of referring to the Japanese leaders by name. The South Korean government "strongly urges the leaders of Japan to squarely face history and demonstrate through action their humble reflection and sincere remorse for" the country's past history, and "stresses that this is an important foundation for the development of future-oriented relations between the two countries based on mutual trust," the statement said. Meanwhile, an official at the South Korean ministry took note of the fact that Ishiba used the word "remorse" over WWII in an address at an annual memorial ceremony held in Tokyo on Friday for those who died in the war. He thus became the first sitting Japanese prime minister to use the term at the war-end anniversary event since 2012. South Korean media scrambled to report this. Yonhap News Agency reported that Japan's prime minister used "remorse" in an address at the war-end anniversary ceremony for the first time in 13 years, but added that this was not direct remorse over Japan's wartime colonial rule.
Japan Times
6 hours ago
- Japan Times
Taliban mark fourth year in power in Afghanistan
Afghanistan's Taliban authorities marked the fourth anniversary of their takeover on Friday buoyed by Russia's first official recognition of their government, a step they hope other countries will follow. Helicopters circled above Kabul, dropping flower petals over the city to mark the Taliban seizure of the capital on Aug. 15, 2021. Taliban members and supporters leaned out of trucks and rickshaws on the streets below waving the black-and-white "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" flags. They also carried yellow jerry cans — a common receptacle for homemade bombs during the 20-year war against U.S.-led forces. Celebrations were organized across the country, although a military parade like the one held with much fanfare last year at the Bagram airbase, once the linchpin for U.S.-led operations, was canceled without public explanation. A gathering was held instead at the enormous Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, where hundreds of men listened to ministers praise the government's achievements. Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who remains largely secluded in the southern Taliban heartland of Kandahar, did not attend but, in a statement read by a spokesman, hailed the return of security to Afghanistan. "Our people were saved from corruption, oppression, usurpation, narcotics, theft, plunder and looting in the light of Islamic laws," the statement said. "A positive environment was created for the rebuilding and reconstruction of Afghanistan." The speeches did not mention the steep challenges facing a country gripped by one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations. In Jalalabad in the east, farmer Zabihullah — who like many Afghans only uses one name — celebrated the Taliban takeover but also hoped authorities would address poverty and unemployment. "They should address the bad situation in the country, because of unemployment poor Afghans are going from one country to another, some die, some are detained, it is a chaotic situation," the 45-year-old said. The Taliban government remains largely isolated on the global stage over restrictions imposed under their severe interpretation of Islamic law, with women facing restrictions the U.N. has deemed "gender apartheid." The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in July for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity over the persecution of women and girls who are banned from most education and work. Women and girls are also barred from parks and gyms, and from traveling without a male guardian. The Taliban authorities scored a victory in July when Russia became the first country to officially recognize their administration. Kabul also enjoys close ties with China, Qatar and several Central Asian states. The Taliban government has reported talks in Kabul with officials from Western states, including Norway, Britain and the United States. International Crisis Group analyst Ibraheem Bahiss said women's rights are still important to the international community but other issues, particularly security, take precedence. "Even Europe — because it has a core interest with migration — has continued to pursue engagement," he said, although discussions with Taliban authorities on women's rights were "a complete nonstarter." The Taliban authorities have almost no internal opposition but struggle with economic fragility, international aid cuts and the influx of 4 million Afghans expelled from neighboring countries. The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) condemned any engagement with the Taliban authorities in a statement. Contrary to its claims, RAWA said, the Taliban government "is not dedicated to ensuring peace and human dignity but is bent on destroying the last vestiges of our people's most basic rights." Independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council called on the international community on Thursday not to normalize relations with the Taliban authorities and to reject their "violent and authoritarian rule." "Operating without legitimacy, the Taliban enforces an institutionalized system of gender oppression, crushes dissent, exacts reprisals, and muzzles independent media," they said in a statement.
