In the wake of an announcement this week that China is boycotting this year’s Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei, several Hong Kong film companies have withdrawn their entries from the prestigious Chinese-language film awards, Hong Kong reports said yesterday.
The Chinese government in a short statement issued on Wednesday said that the China Film Administration was blocking Chinese films and personnel from participating at the festival.
Although the statement did not directly say that Hong Kong’s film industry would be affected, several Hong Kong production companies have announced that they will not participate.
Photo: David Chang / EPA-EFE
Among the films withdrawn from consideration were White Storm 2 — Drug Lords (掃毒2天地對決), Line Walker 2 (使徒行者2諜影行動), Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch (追龍II：賊王) and the animated film No. 7 Cherry Lane (繼園臺七號), Hong Kong’s Ming Pao reported.
Lam Kin-ming (林建名), the owner of Media Asia Group — which produced White Storms 2 — has instructed that no films made by the company are to participate at the festival, the newspaper reported.
Emperor Motion Pictures, which produced award-winning films such as The Beast Stalker (証人) and Operation Red Sea (紅海行動), said it would focus on China’s Golden Rooster Awards and Hundred Flowers Awards this year, and was waiving its participation at the Golden Horse Film Festival, Ming Pao reported.
The Golden Horse Film Festival and the Golden Rooster Awards are both scheduled for Nov. 23.
Hong Kong director Johnnie To (杜琪峰), who earlier agreed to head the Golden Horse Film Festival’s jury, had not issued a statement on the issue.
On Thursday, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) expressed support for Taiwan on Facebook, saying: “This year, AIT looks forward to supporting the US films being featured in the 2019 Golden Horse Festival!”
“Appreciation for the arts and support for independent artists are among the many values shared by the United States and Taiwan,” it said.
Asked if the AIT post indicates support for Taiwan amid Beijing’s embargo, AIT spokesperson Amanda Mansour said that the message “speaks for itself.”
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS