Both Disney and their recently released Mulan remake have come under fire for featuring a “special thanks” to the Publicity Department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee in the film’s credits due to the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution of the region’s Uyghur people.
Related: Disney’s Mulan Accused Of Being “Too White Behind The Camera”
The credit was brought to widespread attention by Hugo Award winning author Jeannette Ng, who posted a screenshot of the film’s credits and pointed out that “Mulan specifically thank the publicity department of CPC Xinjiang uyghur autonomous region committee in the credits.”:
Ng would clarify that the Uyghur Autonomous Region was “the place where the cultural genocide is happening,” and note that Disney also “filmed extensively in Xinjiang, which the subtitles call “Northwest China””:
Since 2014, the CCP has actively sought to forcefully sinicize the region’s Uyghur people through the use of authoritarian methods such as re-education camps, forced sterilization, and hard labor camps.
Reports in 2019 estimated that 1 million to 2 million Ugyhur Muslims have been sent to the aforementioned re-education camps.
This ‘special thanks’ has given fuel to the #BoycottMulan campaign, which was originally started in protest of star Liu Yifei’s support of the Hong Kong police at the start of the 2019 Hong Kong Democratic protests, as users across social media call for audiences to avoid the film due to its support of the CCP’s oppressive government.
The campaign was recently revived by Hong Kong student activist and Former Demosistō Secretary-General Joshua Wong, who urged “everyone who believes in human rights to #BoycottMulan” because “Disney kowtows to Beijing, and because Liu Yifei openly and proudly endorses police brutality in Hong Kong”:
Axios’ China Reporter, Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, specified that the “specific public security bureau” thanked by Disney “has been deeply involved in the Xinjiang concentration camps.”:
Another Hong Kong Pro-Democracy activist, Nathan Law, stated that the boycott was “about hypocrisy”, as “they claim to embrace social justice,” but “in fact, they kowtow to autocratic China disgracefully.”:
Do you think Disney should have worked with the Chinese Communist Party? Will you be seeing the film or supporting the boycott? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!