Published 17:18 IST, September 9th 2020
Disney faces flak for shooting Mulan near Uyghur detention camps in Xinjiang
Disney has come under fire for shooting its new film Mulan in Xinjiang province following the reports of the presence of 15 detention camps in the region.
- World News
- 2 min read
US entertainment giant Disney has come under fire for shooting its new film Mulan in Xinjiang province, also known as East Turkestan, following the reports of the presence of 15 detention camps in the region. The film garnered controversy after Disney thanked Turpan Public Security Bureau and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China's "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" Committee in the film credits.
East Turkistan National Awakening Movement (ETNAM), a Washington-based Uyghur group, said the Chinese government entities were directly involved in mass internment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. ETNAM has shared the exact locations of 10 concentration camps and 5 prisons within roughly 130km radius of the Turpan Region (Prefecture) of East Turkistan.
Demands apology
ETNAM founder and president, Salih Hudayar, said in a statement that Disney is not only helping promote Chinese government propaganda but it is also helping the CCP whitewash the genocide faced by Uyghurs. He accused the CCP of demonising the Uyghurs and other Turkic people of East Turkistan as “barbarians” and as enemies of China and the Chinese people.
“ETNAM demands Disney to immediately cancel all screenings of the movie and issue a formal apology to the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples of East Turkistan. Disney shouldn’t be complicit in the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs,” the group said in a statement.
Earlier, a US-based Uyghur activist had termed the persecution of the ethnic minority group in China’s Xinjiang region as “genocide” and said that the Chinese government don’t see the community as “normal”. Nury Turkel, an American attorney and human rights advocate, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview the Chinese government has zero-tolerance for people who appear and behave differently.
Uyghur are Turkic-speaking Muslims in the Xinjiang province, also known as East Turkestan, who have been facing persecution in the name of “re-education” camps. Turkel said that the Chinese Communist Party is now using the term “transformation” to make them forego their unique culture and traditions.
Updated 17:18 IST, September 9th 2020