Taiwan film festival pressured to drop film about Chinese dissident

Sep 17, 2009, 7:51 GMT

   Taipei - After Chinese protests, the organizer of the Kaohsiung Film Festival came under pressure Thursday to cancel a showing of a film about the life of a Chinese dissident.

    The Kaohsiung Film Archive announced earlier this month that it planned to show the Ten Conditions of Love, a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, during its October 16-29 film festival in Taiwan's second-largest city.

   'We are surprised by all these reactions, because the aim of the film festival is only to show the diversity of film culture,' archive director Liu Hsiu-ying said.

   'This uproar has surpassed our plan for the film festival. We are closely monitoring views from all sides before we can make a decision,' she said.

    The announcement raised cross-strait tension as Kaohsiung recently also invited the Dalai Lama so that the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could comfort victims of typhoon Morakot.

   China accuses both the Dalai Lama and Kadeer of promoting separatism.

   The festival's website has since been attacked by suspected Chinese hackers and Beijing has demanded that Taiwan refrain from activities harmful to cross-strait ties.

   According to the Kaohsiung Tourism Association, Beijing also instructed Chinese travel agencies to boycott Kaohsiung.

   Chinese travel agencies have canceled reservations for some 3,000 hotel rooms in Kaohsiung for September, as well as reservations for October.

   Following an emergency meeting of hoteliers, the Tourism Association Thursday called on the Film Archive to cancel the movie.