Late last week, Disney CFO Christine McCarthy addressed recent controversies over the release of its Mulan remake. The action film, released Sept. 4 via Disney’s streaming service, was shot partly in the northwestern region of China known for egregious human rights abuses.
“It generated a lot of issues for us,” said McCarthy at a virtual conference on Thursday. “[This was] an effort to accurately depict some of the unique landscapes and geography of the country for this historical period piece.”
Specifically, McCarthy responded to how the movie gives “special thanks” to eight different Chinese government entities. “It’s common to acknowledge in a film’s credits the national and local governments that allowed you to film there,” she said. “Let’s leave it at that.”
But human rights advocate Helen Raleigh, who was born in China, cannot leave it at that. She notes how Hollywood has increased investment in China over the past decade — largely ignoring human rights issues along the way.
Since 2017, at least 1.8 million people have been imprisoned in Xinjiang.
“The city that Disney mentioned in the movie credits, Turpan, has at least 14 concentration camps,” said Raleigh in a phone interview. “Their scouting team cannot possibly miss that. Disney is an international company working in media. How could they not know?”
Read more at Seeking to Turn a Profit, Hollywood Turns a Blind Eye to Atrocities in China.
