by Brian Hioe

語言:
English
Photo Credit: Film Poster

SCREENINGS OF A documentary on allegations of forced organ harvesting conducted by the Chinese government, State Organs, have been halted across Taiwan after bomb threats.

The documentary features interviews with doctors involved in forced organ harvesting, audio recordings of victims who later disappeared, and others. However, after the threats, film distributor Lion Films canceled a number of screenings. This occurs even as police have stated that they will investigate the IP addresses that issued bomb threats.

This is hardly the first time that a film critical of the Chinese government has screened in Taiwan. Documentaries such as Inside the Red Brick Wall and Taking Back the Legislature, on the 2019 protests, have been screened at national film festivals.

But it is rare for bomb threats to be issued for a documentary. This may illustrate that the Chinese government takes criticisms regarding forced harvesting seriously. Among those alleged to be victims of forced organ harvesting at the hands of the Chinese government include members of the Falun Gong, a religious organization, as well as Uyghurs.

Nevertheless, it has sometimes been hard to sort through the factual details of such organ harvesting. Namely, while such organ harvesting does occur and the Falun Gong is one of the groups that faces imprisonment, detention, and torture at the hands of the Chinese government, the Falun Gong also exaggerates the details of its treatment in order to attract Western support. In this sense, State Organs could perhaps contribute toward the need to factually detail Chinese actions.

There have been other instances of threats directed at critics of the Chinese government in Taiwan. This has most prominently occurred through actions by Taiwanese pro-unification gangsters, such as members of the Bamboo Union gang.

Film poster

Such incidents of violence included the 2017 Sing! China incident on the campus of National Taiwan University. In the course of the incident, pro-independence students were demonstrating a Chinese singing competition held on the university campus as part of Ko Wen-je’s controversial city-based exchanges with Shanghai, which framed Taiwan as part of China. But such students were attacked on the campus by Bamboo Union gang members, with allegations of a cover-up by the Taipei city police afterward.

Other incidents have involved attacks on Hong Kong activists visiting Taiwan, such as Joshua Wong and Nathan Law. Such attacks were usually carried out at Taoyuan International Airport, with similar attacks occurring in Hong Kong at Hong Kong International Airport. This may suggest coordinated activity between pro-unification gangsters in Taiwan and China.

Otherwise, a number of political figures in Taiwan have received threats from a Chinese student who formerly studied in Taiwan. This individual has been highly prolific with his threats, even if no longer residing in Taiwan. It is unclear if this incident is linked.

Bomb threats, then, are rarer as a reaction to the screening of films and documentaries critical of the Chinese government. It is to be seen if this becomes more common in the future, as part of actions by China intended to create fear in Taiwanese society.

Certainly, some actions by China are aimed at engendering the perception that it already has deeply penetrated Taiwanese society and monitors the actions of Taiwanese everywhere. This has occurred with individuals who purchased books critical of the Chinese government receiving calls from individuals questioning why they had purchased such ideologically problematic books, likely due to purchase information of bookstores being leaked due to poor Internet security. It is to be seen if the Chinese government tries to create fear about individuals viewing such films going forward, perhaps on the basis of poor Internet security.

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