China’s presumed future president is a big fan of Hollywood movies on World War II, but says many top Chinese films are “not worth very much,” according to a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.
A cable leaked this week by the Web site recounted a 2007 conversation between then US ambassador to China Clark Randt and Xi Jinping (習近平), who at the time was Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief of Zhejiang Province.
Xi, now vice president and widely expected to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in 2013, told Randt he “tremendously enjoyed” the 1998 Steven Spielberg war epic Saving Private Ryan, the cable said.
“Xi said he particularly likes Hollywood movies about World War II and hopes Hollywood will continue to make them. Hollywood makes those movies well and such Hollywood movies are grand and truthful,” the cable said.
In 2006, Xi also owned and was trying to find time to watch the DVD of Flags of Our Fathers about the US-Japanese battle for Iwo Jima. He also had watched and enjoyed the Martin Scorsese thriller The Departed, the cable added.
China’s secretive CCP elite closely guard personal details of top officials.
Aside from the fact that he is married to a well-known Chinese singer, few personal details are available on Xi, who strikes a bland figure in public appearances, as do all of China’s top leaders.
Xi said that “Americans have a clear outlook on values and clearly demarcate between good and evil. In American movies, good usually prevails.”
By contrast, Xi described Curse of the Golden Flower, a 2006 Chinese movie directed by acclaimed director Zhang Yimou (張藝謀), as “confusing,” the cable said.
“Some Chinese moviemakers neglect values they should promote,” he was quoted as saying, adding that “America is a powerful nation in terms of culture because Americans say what they should say.”
“Too many Chinese moviemakers cater to foreigners’ interests or preconceptions, sometimes vulgarly so,” it added.
He also pilloried the kungfu action movie genre, now all the rage in China, and in particular Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon an international hit in 2000 by -Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安), saying of such films, “all are the same, talking about bad things in imperial palaces.”
The lack of Oscar nominations or other top awards for major Chinese movies indicated “that such movies are not worth very much,” Xi reportedly said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in