Taiwan groups protest China's National Day with dissident films

Sep 29, 2009, 6:12 GMT

   Taipei - Taiwan activists plan to snub China's National Day celebrations Thursday by showing two films on Beijing's suppression of freedom, the organizers said Tuesday.

   The groups plan to screen one documentary about the Rebiya Kadeer, a dissident leader of China's Uighur ethnic group, and another on Beijing's suppression of freedom in Tibet, in five cities Thursday evening, the Movement magazine and the Friends of Tibet said in a statement.

   'When China celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic and displays its economic and military power, we will screen the films to show how China suppresses ethnic groups and human rights,' the statement said.

   'By doing so, we want to demonstrate the Taiwan spirit: the greater the suppression, the stronger the resistance,' it said.

   Both documentaries are banned on the mainland, and the two Tibetan filmmakers who made Leaving Fears Behind were arrested and jailed in China in March 2008.

   In recent years, China has tightened control in Xinjiang and Tibet to prevent the ethnic minorities from seeking independence.

   China is also keeping a close eye on Taiwan as the island still refuses to reunify with mainland China and some Taiwanese support formal independence.