Taiwan should have nothing to fear from screening a controversial documentary on exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, the film's producer said yesterday in Taipei, adding that it would demonstrate that Taiwan’s respect for freedom of speech and human rights was “not negotiable.”
John Lewis, producer of The 10 Conditions of Love — a 53-minute documentary on Kadeer and her fight for improved human rights in East Turkistan, or Xinjiang — said the film did not criticize the Chinese people, but rather focused on the course of action taken by Beijing to restrict freedom of speech in other countries.
The Chinese government condemned the film and its subject, branding Kadeer a “terrorist” and a “separatist.”
MELBOURNE
When the film was shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July, it was met with scorn from the Chinese embassy, which tried hard to have the film removed.
The festival Web site was hacked by protesters who demanded that organizers apologize to all Chinese people.
Despite the confrontation, the film was shown to an audience of more than 1,000 people, said Lewis, and Kadeer was issued a visa to Australia to give a speech.
TAIWAN
The Taiwanese government, however, has rejected any visit by Kadeer.
“I believe there is a more subtle and far more powerful course of action now being taken by China to limit free speech in other countries — at least in subjects in which China is interested — by which it uses its economic power to ‘encourage’ other countries to censor themselves,” Lewis said.
The producer added that several major film festivals, including in South Korea, Canada and England, have refused to show the film, possibly because of Chinese influence.
NEW TACTIC
However, Lewis said Beijing seemed to have taken a different approach to the issue in the last six to eight weeks.
Instead of fighting the film in public, Beijing has stayed quiet about it, he said.
Chinese officials have finally figured out that making a big fuss about the documentary only makes people more interested in it, Lewis said.
SILENCE
Chinese officials’ silence on the film, he said, did not mean that Beijing had eased its oppression in Xinjiang, where Human Rights Watch said more than 40 Uighurs were recently executed.
Lewis has offered Taiwan’s Public Television System (PTS) a broadcast deal to show the film but has not received any response.
Lewis said PTS was interested in a German film on Rebiya titled China’s Public Enemy Number One, but later dropped the idea when it found out the film was Lewis’ film under a different name.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS