Taipei lashes out at Beijing after film with ‘pro-independence’ actor banned
Mainland accused of inconsistency ‘in its words and deeds’ after Missing Johnny screenings barred over claims about its star Lawrence Ko
Taipei has accused Beijing of inconsistency between what it says and does after a Taiwanese film was banned on the mainland amid claims its lead actor Lawrence Ko supports independence for the island.
It comes a month after Beijing introduced a raft of preferential policies for Taiwanese that include more access to the lucrative mainland market for their film, television and books.
Taiwan’s top department on cross-strait affairs, the Mainland Affairs Council, on Thursday said Beijing was already breaking its promises for political reasons by indefinitely suspending screenings of the film Missing Johnny.
“This is just an example showing how inconsistent the Chinese mainland is in its words and deeds,” the council said in a statement responding to the ban.
China Film Co, the distributor of Missing Johnny, said on Monday that the film – which had been due for a mainland release on April 14 – would be put on hold until further notice, without elaborating.
On Wednesday, An Fengshan, spokesman for the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the decision was taken because the government “would not permit the release of films in China whose production includes entertainers who hold pro-Taiwan independence views and propagate pro-Taiwan independence speech”.