U.S. lawmakers recently criticized Disney and CEO Bob Iger for the company’s reported refusal to meet with victims of the genocide committed by the Communist Party-led Chinese government, following the controversy surrounding the live-action Mulan.
In a letter shared on social media, The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, addressed Disney CEO Bob Iger and recalled the studio’s decision to partly film Mulan in Xinjiang (also known as East Turkestan) and even include special thanks to Chinese authorites from the region– authorities currently accused of committing genocide. The letter criticized the lack of an apology and went on to raise the issue of cancelled meetings.
“Shortly after Mulan’s premiere, a coalition of likeminded groups contacted Disney and asked to organize a sit-down between Disney executives, Uyghur victims’ families, and Uyghur advocates. Our understanding is that Disney’s representatives initially agreed to scheduled off-the-record discussion. The advocacy groups were hopeful about the opportunity to correct your company’s apparent indifference toward the Uyghur genocide… But after initially agreeing to the meeting, Disney’s representatives suddenly cut off the correspondence and ignored the group’s further inquiries.” The letter then urged Iger to schedule a meeting with representatives of the Uyghur American Association and Uyghur Human Rights Project.
The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party recently completed a tour across Hollywood and Silicon Valley to assess the relationships major studios and businesses had with Chinese authorities and how those companies might have participated in the exportation of China’s policies. During the Committee’s meeting with Disney’s Bob Iger, the CEO reportedly admitted that there were missteps in the company’s compliance with cultural and political requests.
Disney’s Mulan Controversy
Mulan was released in 2020 and was surrounded by controversy even before it premiered. As the letter mentioned, parts of the film were shot in Xinjiang and the credits included thanks to the Publicity Department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee, which is responsible for overseeing media content across numerous industries and ensuring adherence to party ideology and values. It has therefore been linked to attempts by the Chinese state to obfuscate evidence of genocide.
Gallagher himself suggested that the issues relating to Mulan had impacted the projects that followed. He stated, “Disney claims that, having seen that blow up in their faces, they changed their processes. That was a decision made by the director or the producer, higher headquarters at Disney didn’t approve it, so now they have some process for approving things like that.”
Source: Twitter
#Disney #Slammed #Cancelling #Meetings #Victims #Chinas #Genocide
