China Warns Taiwan Over Uighur Film

by Barbara McPherson | September 21, 2009 at 08:31 am

43 views | 1 Recommendation | add comment

Taiwan has managed to tweak China's symbolic nose over the screening of an Uyghur film and has received a warning that it might stir up trouble for relations between the two countries. While most of the world recognizes Taiwan as an independent country, the PRC has maintained that it is a breakaway province of the greater China.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island.

The two sides have tried to improve relations over the past year, but Kaohsiung, a stronghold of Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive party which supports Taiwanese independence from China, angered Beijing when, along with several other opposition-led counties, it invited the Dalai Lama to pray for victims of Typhoon Morakot, which killed up to 770 people last month.

The film in question The 10 Conditions of Love focusses on an exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer. The PRC has labelled her a separatist along with the Dalai Lama.
The Chinese authorities earlier tried to muzzle Australian film festival organizers over this film, creating an interest in it that led to greater than expected audiences.
The anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of China(PRC) is October 1st, marking 60 years of the Republic.

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon