Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Film Poster
THE TAIPEI CITY government has been criticized for cancelling a screening of State Organs, the documentary about Chinese organ harvesting of Falun Gong members.
The screening was to take place at Organ Care Taiwan, an organization focused on maintaining ethical organ transplantation practices, and which is especially concerned about issues of organ harvesting in China. Organ Care Taiwan had rented out the Youth Department of the Taipei city government as the venue for the screening. Among the speakers was anti-CCP YouTuber Pa Chiung. Chiung is well-known for a two-part exposé on Chinese United Front activities in Taiwan’s entertainment industry, which was recorded with former pro-CCP rapper Chen Po-yuan. The documentary features interviews with doctors involved in forced organ harvesting, audio recordings of victims who later disappeared, and others.
Nevertheless, the screening was reported to be canceled by the Taipei city government after three threatening letters were received by the Youth Department. These letters threatened to bomb the venue or conduct a shooting there. Subsequently, the Taipei city government informed Organ Care Taiwan that the screening was canceled. By contrast, however, when DPP city councilor Yen Juo-fang called up the Youth Department, the department claimed that the screening was still on.
Either way, the Taipei city government has already seen public fallout over the event. In particular, the screening was juxtaposed with accusations that the Taipei city government has sought to make life more difficult for organizers of recall petitions against KMT politicians. The current wave of recalls seek to recall all KMT legislators and are unprecedented in the history of Taiwanese politics.
The recalls are a reaction to efforts by the KMT to drastically cut the government budget, which would slash 34% of the government’s operation budget. As such, the Taipei city government was often seen as wishing to find a pretext to cancel the screenings, rather than step up security for the screening.
For example, the Taipei city government currently requires stalls for gathering signatures for recall petitions to register ahead of time as a march or rally under the Parade and Assembly Act and to pay 30,000 NT as a deposit. Businesses that support recalls have also faced fire and water inspections, thought to be political retribution from local opponents or the Taipei city government itself.
This has been juxtaposed to KMT legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin only being made to pay 26,000 NT as a deposit to borrow district community centers to hold activities. Hsu also borrowed district community centers 357 times. Holding 700 signature collection events would cause recall signature petitioners to have to spend 84 times the amount of money Hsu has spent.
State Organs was released last year, but previously saw a series of bomb threats directed against it. In the wake of 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 Hong Kong 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 quite 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.
Otherwise, Taiwan has seen some instances of violence directed at pro-democracy activists at the hands of organized crime groups such as the Bamboo Union gang. This occurred in 2017 with attacks on pro-independence student demonstrators protesting cross-strait exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai that framed Taiwan as part of China, as well as during visits to Taiwan by pro-democracy Hong Kong activists such as Joshua Wong.
Yet it proves newer for there to be a wave of bomb threats directed against screenings of documentaries critical of the Chinese government. It sets a dangerous precedent in Taiwan that this is increasingly commonplace, then.