[ad_1]
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers has called for Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek to explain the company’s contacts with “security and propaganda authorities” in China’s Xinjiang region during the production of the live-action version of “Mulan.”
After it emerged that scenes for the $ 200 million film had been filmed in Xinjiang, where up to a million Uyghurs, most of whom are Muslims, have been forced into detention camps, a campaign intensified. boycott against the film.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon / Bloomberg
“Disney’s apparent cooperation with officials in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who are primarily responsible for committing atrocities, or covering up those crimes, is deeply disturbing,” the representatives and senators said. wrote in a letter on Friday.
Lawmakers, including Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, as well as Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, noted that the Beijing government’s crackdown on Xinjiang is well known. for a long time. , and the decision to film there “in cooperation with local security and propaganda elements, offers tacit legitimacy to these perpetrators of crimes that can justify the designation of genocide.”
Previously: Disney nods to filming uproar ‘Mulan‘in Xinjiang of China
The letter contained several inquiries, one regarding the “use of Uighurs or other ethnic minority labor, as well as any due diligence undertaken to ensure that forced labor was not used during the production of the film.”
The legislators referred to the high regard that Disney says it has for social responsibility and added: “We seek to fully understand how it implements this commitment in its activities in China.”
The film, which opened in Chinese theaters on Friday, has become a political lightning rod, with U.S. elected officials criticizing the close ties between Hollywood and the Chinese government in an increasingly heated political and economic climate.
The controversy began last year after Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei, who plays the title character, said she supported the Hong Kong police over pro-democracy protesters in the city. He started a #BoycottMulan campaign on Twitter.
After the film was available for purchase online on September 4 in the United States and Europe, attention was drawn to the credits, in which Disney thanked various local authorities in Xinjiang. The government runs camps in Xinjiang that it calls “voluntary re-education centers” and has banned religious names for children, as well as observance of the daytime fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Read: His father in prison, Uighur activist wants Disney to apologize
Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to requests for comment made outside of business hours.
The company’s chief financial officer, Christine McCarthy, said Thursday that Disney filmed the film primarily in New Zealand. Some 20 locations in China were also used to better capture the country’s geography. It is customary, McCarthy said, to thank local governments on credits.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company has already had a long and costly fight to get “Mulan” out to the public. With American theaters in the US still largely closed, “Mulan” was offered to Disney + subscribers for $ 30.
The uproar coincided with a sharp decline in US-China relations, and with President Donald Trump making the Beijing government’s denunciations a central theme of his re-election campaign.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration said it banned imports from three companies into China’s Xinjiang region over Beijing’s alleged crackdown on Uyghurs, and that it planned to add restrictions on six more companies and target cotton, textiles and tomatoes from the area.
Read more: US rejects some Xinjiang companies of China for alleged abuses; Plans More
[ad_2]
