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(CNN) – Disney has publicly thanked a Chinese government agency accused of human rights abuses in Xinjiang for its help in making “Mulan,” a revelation that has sparked a storm of criticism online.
Disney recognizes several Chinese government agencies in the credits for the live remake of the 1998 animated image of the same name, but some in particular have raised red flags: the Xinjiang government publicity department and the Public Safety and Security offices. Tourism of Turpan, a city of approximately 633,400 inhabitants on the outskirts of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.
Disney did not respond to a request for comment from CNN Business to its media hotline and to US press officials about the film and the credits. It’s unclear how much of “Mulan” may have been filmed in Xinjiang, although people who worked on the film have said on social media and in interviews that they explored and filmed locations there.
The US State Department estimates that since 2015 up to two million Muslim-majority Uighurs and other Turkish minorities have been imprisoned in huge re-education camps in Xinjiang.
The Turpan Public Security Bureau has been listed by the United States government as an organization involved in “human rights violations and abuses” in the region.
Beijing has long defended the crackdown in Xinjiang as necessary to combat extremism and terrorism, saying it is in line with Chinese law and international practice, calling the accusations of mass arrests an “unsubstantiated lie” and a “tabloid rumor”. A spokesman for the country’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday reiterated its defense of what it calls its “professional skills education and training centers” in Xinjiang. CNN Business has reached out to the Xinjiang government and the Turpan tourism bureau, but the Turpan Public Security bureau could not be reached for comment.
“There are no so-called concentration camps in Xinjiang,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. “The establishment of vocational skills training and education centers in Xinjiang in accordance with the law is a useful attempt and active exploration for the preventive fight against terrorism and de-radicalization.”
But the connections between Xinjiang and “Mulan” have drawn widespread criticism on social media since its launch on Friday on Disney +, the company’s streaming service. Human rights defenders are now calling on Disney to make public any agreements with the Chinese government on filming in the region.
“[It’s] deeply disturbing that Disney thought it was okay to partner with, and also thank, government departments, specifically propaganda departments, and a public security bureau from a region in China that is complicit in the genocide, “said Isaac Stone Fish, Asia Principal Investigator Society, a New York-based non-profit organization focused on raising awareness about Asia.
A movie full of setbacks
Disney expected “Mulan” to be a huge hit at the lucrative Chinese box office, now the second-largest in the world. The company spoke last year about its dedication to making the film culturally accurate, comments that were reported in Chinese state media.
“We spent a lot of time in the beginning with academics, experts and people from the region. And we spent a lot of time in China,” Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, said at a Disney expo event. last year, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Bailey added that the studio “not only has a Chinese cast, but they also brought in a Chinese producer to make the film with them,” the outlet noted.
Eschewing the musicality of the previous Disney animated film of the same name, a box office analyst told CNN Business earlier this year that the live-action epic was “tailor-made for success.”
But the film, which is based on a traditional Chinese legend about a warrior who disguised herself as a man and took her father’s place in the military, has already faced controversy and setbacks.
In August 2019, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong called for a boycott of “Mulan” after the lead actor expressed his support for the Hong Kong police on his social media account.
“I support the Hong Kong police. Everyone can attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong,” Liu Yifei, a Chinese-born American citizen who plays the titular Hua Mulan, posted on her official Weibo account. At the time, Hong Kong police faced accusations of excessive violence against protesters. (Hong Kong police defended their actions in September 2019, saying they had been “very moderate.”)
Then in March, Disney was forced to delay the film’s release when the coronavirus pandemic closed theaters.
Even now, its implementation has been forced. The movie was released as a $ 30 video on demand last Friday on Disney +, which is only available in certain markets, including the United States. It makes its debut in Chinese theaters this weekend. (Disney + is not available in China).
However, the film’s release has renewed the controversy surrounding it. Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan have once again called on people to boycott the film due to Yifei’s remarks last year.
And it’s not even clear if the film will win over Chinese audiences, who were already cold to the original animated version due to its westernized flair and the original legend’s unfaithful retelling.
After the release of the trailer in 2019, Chinese state media Global Times criticized the film for using Japanese “ninja gestures” and Chinese stereotypes.
Call for transparency
Allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang date back years.
In recent years, the Xinjiang government has reportedly launched a major campaign to imprison and re-educate the Muslim minorities in the region, especially the large Uyghur population.
Evidence of widespread human rights abuses has come out of the region, including prolonged detentions, abuse, indoctrination and mass birth control, which experts have described as evidence of “genocide.”
In 2017, Mulan’s director Niki Caro posted a photo of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and said she was looking for locations for the film. And in a September interview with Conde Nast traveler, Mulan production designer Grant Major spoke about filming in Xinjiang’s Taklamakan Desert, in the extreme southwest of the region.
Adrian Zenz, a prominent academic with the Victims of Communism Foundation who has helped spread important stories from Xinjiang, said the first documented case of a re-education center in the region was in Turpan in 2013.
Zenz said that while Disney may not have known about the growing number of detention centers set up in Xinjiang, it was impossible to ignore the widespread oppression in the region.
“There were police stations and checkpoints all over Xinjiang at the end of 2016, something not to be missed,” he said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao dismissed Zenz’s claims, accusing him of earning a living “making Xinjiang-related rumors and slandering China.” He also stated that there have been no cases of violence or terrorism in Xinjiang for “more than three consecutive years.”
Turpan was also the scene of one of the worst outbreaks of ethnic violence in Xinjiang in recent years, when 35 people were killed during an attack on a police station in Lukqun municipality in 2013, according to state media.
Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, asked Disney to reveal the assistance it received from the Xinjiang authorities and the agreements it made with the regional government.
And Stone Fish, a member of the Asia Society, said many companies were used to making small concessions to the ruling Communist Party to access the Chinese market.
“Studios feel they need to make these commitments to be in Beijing, but it may lightly censor its films to enter the Chinese market, it may bring in Chinese films that should not be in the United States due to poor quality or propaganda elements in States. And it can do that and keep its integrity, for the most part intact, “he said.
“You don’t need to follow these additional steps that Disney is taking, and they are rightly criticizing them for it.”
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Disney received a backlash after thanking Xinjiang authorities in the credits of ‘Mulan'”
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