Overview

• Curator Sai with his wife fled Thailand for the UK and plan to seek asylum after claims that Thai police were seeking them, though a police spokesperson denied any knowledge of such efforts
• The ‘Constellation of Complicity’ exhibition remains open in pared-back form with artists’ names and homeland references for Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong blacked out and films and flags removed
• An internal email cited warnings of ‘diplomatic tensions’ conveyed through the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry and Bangkok city government as the reason for alterations driven by Chinese embassy pressure
• The Chinese embassy in Thailand defended the removals as ‘timely measures’ against what it called a ‘false notion’ promoting independence in Tibet, Uyghur and Hong Kong regions
• UK human-rights figures including Lord Alton of Liverpool and the Human Rights Foundation condemned the censorship as transnational repression and pledged support for the artists’ asylum bids