Chinese consulate officials in Austrailia attempted to have a film withdrawn from Melbourne’s International Film Festival because it focuses on Rebiya Kadeer and her family. The festival’s director refused, and later commented to the media that he
“…had no reason to withdraw the film from the festival and she then proceeded to tell me that I had to justify my decision to include the film in the festival.
“No-one reacts well to strident approaches, or to the appearance of being bullied. I don’t think it’s a positive way of behaving,” he added.
He said he told Ms Chen he did not have to justify the film’s inclusion, “then politely hung up”.
This social faux paus on the of the Chinese might add fuel (in the form of public indignation) to the already tense relations between Australia and China. This occurs at a time when China has arrested an Australian businessman on charges of espionage. More details on Australian-Chinese relations can be found in an NPR report from this morning.
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Many people in China can’t distinguish between state action and private action especially in the political field partly because there is no such thing at “private political view” allowed in China, at least not in public. Anything that’s both public and political in China is either from the state or is in conformity with the state view. People thus often take it for granted that such is the situation universally.
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 5:21 am ¶A film not sponsored by the Australian government has nothing to do with the state view. Yet, I fear that people might simply blindly attack the Australian government for not “censoring” it as the Chinese government would.
A governmental official asking a private foreign citizen not to exercise his/her rights on a foreign soil only proves two things: (1) the government he represents doesn’t know how the rest of the world functions; and (2) the government he represents is so lacking in confidence that a foreign film played on foreign soil can even touch its nerve.
Correction: China has arrested an Australian businessmen (Chinese-Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu) and three co-workers from the Shanghai division, seemingly in retaliation for Rio Tinto’s rejection of a billion-dollar deal with Chinalco last month. All the information relating to that highly politicized deal is now in the hands of Chinese investigators, creating the potential for further conflict between the two governments.
On the Film Festival story, the Chinese consulate in Melbourne is definitely feeling the heat there. Yesterday consular staff tried to remove journalists from the sidewalk opposite their building, which just makes them look worse and worse. The question now is whether or not they try and mobilize a protest at the screening, which would go down disastrously, or whether they back off.
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 8:02 am ¶Thank you for the clarification. The article that I first read on the Australian steel company was unclear as to which country had arrested the individual, as well as the nationality of the arrested man.
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 9:50 am ¶Chinese are genociding Moslem College students: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-297840 The two lying are arrested two Uyghur college students and the people stoning to death are the Chinese Paramilitary forces. Chinese are genociding Moslem factory workers: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-297193 They are chasind them and clubbing them to death. Chinese destruction of Moslem culture: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28kashgar.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=kashgar&st=cse They are destroying the oldest mosques in Central Asia, oldest buildings. We must stop this bloodshed and help our Moslem brothers in East Turkistan….
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 2:35 pm ¶It makes it obvious China is much more concerned with Australia and Rio Tinto than with Turkey and its somewhat weak support for the Uyghur cause…
This makes me a bit sick that China considers it can abduct every person of Chinese origin regardless of one’s citizenship… Poor Stern Hu, he shouldn’t have worked in China, now he’s become a scapegoat for money matters.
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 6:28 pm ¶To get back on topic, and to reply to Ralphie who said that “the government he represents is so lacking in confidence that a foreign film played on foreign soil can even touch its nerve”, I’m afraid that such people like that cultural attache just called the festival’s director by her own decision, or that it was maybe only one hierarchical superior who asked her to do so. This is how China and the Chinese officials work: they find “annoying” matters by themselves, then they call people to pressure them to solve the problem, so that they can be praised and evolve in the hierarchy. If it gets to the central government, of course they will approve such action, but generally they aren’t aware of anything that happens abroad, as they are most of the time looking at their own belly buttons and lack a comprehensive understanding of what happens on this planet.
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 6:37 pm ¶Mehmet is quite right in pointing out the lack of coordination in Chinese governance in general. This is a very opportunistic action. After all, if Rebiya Kadeer is so inveterately evil where was the condemnation two weeks ago, before the Rio Tinto case and Urumqi riots. Presumably they knew the film was included. Another example of China being its own worst enemy when presenting itself to the world. (for background, see James Fallows’ article in the november issue of the Atlantic Monthly)
Posted 16 Jul 2009 at 11:34 pm ¶I don’t think the lack of coordination in governance is anywhere near the top of the CCP’s worry list. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have created those bogus “protest zones” during the Olympics and denied all 77 applications plus an attempt to sentence a 72-year-old applicant to “re-education through labor.” Clearly on the CCP’s scale, suppressing the substantive information weighs much more than the risk of making a gigantic fool of itself in front of the world. These consulate officials, even though possibly acting on their own, understand this principle of the CCP full and well. After all, there is this popular saying in Chinese: “It is more important to guard against people’s mouth than guarding the country.”
Posted 17 Jul 2009 at 4:06 am ¶Here’s the latest on this story: Chinese hack the Melbourne International Film Festival website.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/chinese-hack-into-film-festival-site-20090725-dwvx.html
Posted 26 Jul 2009 at 6:46 am ¶Hacking the festival site is completely childish. Regardless of whether the government is behind it or not, China comes out looking ever worse (does the Chinese government and/or Chinese nationalists oppose freedom of speech for Australians now?) and Rebiya Kadeer and her cause gain more international attention. I also read that the festival organizers are actually scheduling more screenings of the “10 conditions of love” in light of the other Chinese filmmakers pulling out (one filmmaker admits to being pressured by the government), giving Kadeer and the film yet more attention…. just amazingly inept and a unexpected coup for Uyghur rights campaigners.
Posted 26 Jul 2009 at 1:47 pm ¶Isn’t it hilarious? See China Daily news:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-07/28/content_8479251.htm
Posted 28 Jul 2009 at 8:06 am ¶