TAIPEI — Taiwan’s second-largest city on Sunday said it will show a controversial documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer in the coming days despite objections by China.
Kaohsiung, a stronghold of the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was planning to screen the biopic at the Kaohsiung film festival in October but has moved the screening forward.
The China Times newspaper here quoted hotels in the southern city as saying they’d had thousands of cancellations from mainland tourists after Chinese authorities instructed tour operators to stay away temporarily from the city.
Beijing, which has labelled Kadeer a “criminal” and accused her of inciting ethnic violence in China’s far-west Xinjiang region in July that led to nearly 200 deaths, warned the Kaohsiung authorities not to harm cross-strait relations.
“We firmly oppose this,” a spokesman for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
Kaohsiung’s announcement came as Zhu Shanlu, Communist Party chief in China’s eastern Nanjin city, arrived in Taiwan for a visit which he had deferred earlier this month in an apparent protest at the controversial visit by Tibet’s exiled leader the Dalai Lama.
Using Kaohsiung’s Chinese name, the spokesman added: “We urge relevant parties in Gaoxiong not to go on their own way, and not to cause trouble again with regards to cross-strait relations.”
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu announced on Sunday that the documentary would now be screened instead on Tuesday and Wednesday, and not at the film festival next month.
“Since the film festival organisers have decided to show the film, we simply cannot say no to them,” Chen told reporters, adding she did not want to see the event “negatively impacted”.
Chen, a top official of the DPP, which favours formal independence from China, tried to play down the significance of the film about Kadeer, called “The 10 Conditions of Love”.
Chen said it was “not a special film… she tried to display her love”.
The recent screening of the film in Australia and a visit there by Kadeer was strongly criticised by Beijing.
Ties between Taiwan and China, which have improved markedly since the Beijing-friendly government of President Ma Ying-jeou took office last year, looked fragile again as the Dalai Lama’s visit strained the relationship.
He said repeatedly his visit was “non-political” but China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, voiced anger and cancelled several delegations to the island, including one led by a deputy central bank governor and another one by Zhu.
Zhu is scheduled to meet Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, on Monday, party officials said.
