‘Mulan’ Comes Under Fire Again, This Time For Filming Done In The Xinjiang Province

Disney’s Mulan is once again coming under fire, and this time it is because of the location where the live-action movie was filmed, Patrick Brzeski of The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Tuesday. At issue is an official thank-you to the Chinese government posted after the credits.

Mulan’s included thank-you points out there was some filming done in Xinjiang. The location is the site of alleged human rights abuses, and they are believed to have been done on a massive scale. Among the actions reportedly carried out were anti-religion crackdowns that led to more than 1 million Uighur Muslims imprisoned.

Shooting footage in the area would have drawn an outcry all on its own, according to Brzeski. However, individuals already upset about the release of Mulan were angered further with the thank-you to Chinese officials.

Mulan’s producers specifically thank officials in eight separate government entities in Xinjiang. One of those thanks is to the Public Security Bureau in the city of Turpan. Reportedly, China may still be operating more than a dozen “re-education camps” in Turpan that hold people in extrajudicial detention.

Mulan’s credit sequence also offers a very public thank-you to the “publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uighur Autonomy Region Committee.” This is purportedly the Chinese government’s propaganda wing in the area. Part of this agency’s operations has been to publicly deny activities that worldwide organizations have accused China of committing in the area.

China has reportedly been under scrutiny for years for the way it treats its Muslim citizens.

Uighurs have reported being subjected to a wide range of abuses, including grueling political indoctrination regimens and forced labor. There are also allegations of forced sterilization.

Party leadership has claimed the facilities are a peaceful effort to try and improve the region’s security and economic development.

Mike Forsyth, a New York Times reporter who was stationed in the Communist country for years, was the most prominent voice blasting the decisions regarding Mulan’s filming and then the offering of thanks.

He posted on Twitter that Disney’s moves were particularly outrageous. He compared what the firm had done to another company, McKinsey, that held a corporate retreat there in 2018. The reported wrote Mulan’s filming at those locations was “on an entirely different level.”

This latest wave of criticism came just weeks after the movie’s official release stirred up calls for a boycott. As The Inquisitr previously reported, the movie’s star, Liu Yifei, drew the ire of Hong Kong protesters after some social media posts she made in support of Hong Kong police, who have been cracking down on demonstrators.