Fuck you China. You can't censor another fucking country.

[weemadando]

..but oh boy can they ever try.

For those who came in late:
Melbourne International Film Festival decides to include a movie about an exiled Uighar. No one pays any attention at all because it's a short bio piece in a minor film festival.

Oh wait, sorry, make that: No one except China pays any attention.

So they throw a shit-fit.

First they have their Embassy in Australia protest that we would dare to show a film about an exiled leader of an evil counter-revolutionary impure, unscrupulous, evil, not-Han person.

The Australian Media (TM) perk up their ears and go: "Eh, what? There's a Melbourne International Film Festival?" The Australian Gov't goes: "..." MIFF goes: "Fuck off."

So China decides that they haven't made enough of a point yet. And they have all the other Chinese films withdrawn from the festival.

The Australian Media (TM) now go: "Fuck me, what's going on, I'm getting calls from the BBC about some movie about a Burger Woman from China or something?" The Australian Gov't goes: "..." And the MIFF goes: "Whatever. Fuck you. We didn't want your shitty movies anyway."

So now some hackers (read: state sponsored IT experts) have been attacking the MIFF website and replaced it for a time with some propaganda. I thought China wasn't allowed to have the internet. I thought that was the deal. They have shitty jobs, massive pollution and give us cheap production - we have the internet and air you can breath and sell them some minerals from time to time.

This is becoming a big deal in Australia at the moment, because it's coming on the back of an Australian Citizen (who jsut happens to be an executive in a mining company that snubbed a Chinese takeover "offer") being arrested for espionage in China, and our gov'ts continued "Oh, no, we love China. Look! I speak Mandarin!" talk - well, let's just say that the media is having a field day with it. We have our own big bogey-man again and to make it even better they can trot out all the old "red menace" stuff again.

Posted Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:22pm AEST
Updated Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:41pm AEST
Rebiya Kadeer: MIFF is screening a documentary about the exiled Uighur leader

Rebiya Kadeer: MIFF is screening a documentary about the exiled Uighur leader. (Reuters: Jason Reed)

* Map: Melbourne 3000
* Related Story: China 'wants to bury' Australian Uighur doco

Police are investigating attacks on the website of the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Festival director Richard Moore believes the hacking of the site has been carried out by Chinese people outside Australia, who are angry the festival is screening a documentary about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

Mr Moore says the intensity of the attacks has only strengthened his desire to screen the film.

"How could we change our mind now?" he said.

"It just makes our position even, even stronger and we may even consider programming more sessions of 10 Conditions of Love."

Sixty-five per cent of tickets to the festival are sold online, but Mr Moore says the hack has not affecting bookings.

"A film festival always want to sell tickets and always wants to be on the front page rather than in the arts pages, but this has become like a really serious issue," he said.

"We're also being bombarded at present by a series of absolutely disgusting vile emails attacking the festival and using language that I wouldn't even begin to describe on the radio, it is vile."

The website attacks appeared to come from a Chinese IP address, Mr Moore told a Melbourne newspaper.

He says private security guards will be on hand to protect Ms Kadeer and film-goers at next month's screening.

Ms Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress, is the subject of the documentary 10 Conditions of Love by Australian filmmaker Jeff Daniels.

The Chinese government accuses her of masterminding violent unrest that broke out in China's northwestern Xinjiang region on July 5 that left more than 190 people dead. She denies the charges.

The Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority group who mainly live in western Xinjiang province, complain of political and religious repression under Chinese rule.

Chinese directors Tang Xiaobai and Jia Zhangke withdrew their films from the festival last week, citing the Kadeer documentary's inclusion.

Tang said she decided to boycott the event after receiving calls from government officials but insisted she was not pressured and the decision was her own.

- ABC/AFP

[thejester]

It's unbelievable Stern Hu hasn't got more airtime. Has he been fucking charged yet? It's such a blatant political powerplay, it's embarrassing to see cunts like this buttering up.

[Steve]

At the core of this is probably attitudes about such things. Westerners regard things like movies as an act of free speech that could be lies or misdirection but which should not be censored (to an extent, I'm well aware of self-censorship on things like use of foul language and sexual content). China, from my view, regards all media as dissemination of information for public consumption, not necessarily art for the sake of art, and so any unfavorable information that makes the Chinese government and nation look bad must be censored or suppressed with every iota of Chinese influence. This includes exerting that influence on other nations.

Such is the way of things.

It can be sickening that, like the second article shows, some officials are actually taking the view that Chinese misbehavior should be ignored in the name of "doing business", but given the world economy some may ask if the price of further economic turmoil and problems is worth that of one man's freedom.

[Lord of the Abyss]

It can be sickening that, like the second article shows, some officials are actually taking the view that Chinese misbehavior should be ignored in the name of "doing business", but given the world economy some may ask if the price of further economic turmoil and problems is worth that of one man's freedom.

Yes. Because once you start sacrificing "just one man's freedom" like that, your freedom isn't safe either. Because next time, the "one man" in question might be you. And there will always be another "vitally important" issue that just happens to require taking away someone's freedom.

And it's not like caving in is going to discourage China from this behavior, after all. In fact, if it works for China you can expect other countries to try similar stunts. So you aren't talking about just "one man", but all the others to come after if this method of pressuring for censorship is allowed to work.

[Steve]

Oh, I'm quite aware of that.

But the temptation of "Just this one time, we can't afford that price right now" will be omnipresent.

And as it is China knows they have a sweet position against the West. IIRC they've been wisely buying up a lot of things like oil wells, mines, etc. They're letting us dick around with factories and financial services, they'll just control the useful stuff and get the last laugh.

[weemadando]

Here's some cartoons on the Stern Hu case. Kudelka really just sums it up brilliantly.






On the topic of the Film Festival - to be honest I was expecting there to be a huge amount of shit-flinging coming from Indonesia over the Balibo movie which shows Indonesian troops torturing and executing the Balibo Five. Then again, I think that Indonesia has pretty much run out of steam and credibility in trying to deny those events... But still - there hasn't even been a peep from them about it.

[JointStrikeFighter]

That and we don't have John Howard to antagonise them at every corner.

[weemadando]

That and we don't have John Howard to antagonise them at every corner.

I don't know - maybe we can get Rudd to lead a UN intervention in West Papua.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Man I remember the pre-timor days when expert analysts n TODAY TONIGHT were all INDO ARMY HAS 1 MILLION MANZ AND WILL CRUSH THE AUSTRALIAN FORCES IN THE BUT

[Chris OFarrell]

Someone on Today/Tonight actually said that?

Well I'm not exactly surprised given their standards of reporting

[tim31]

Yeah, I remember hearing that report, unless JSF has planted the memory by suggestion.

A friend saw said report and declared to me that he believed Indonesia would invade in retaliation. Brisbane Line finally comes in handy!

I think the worst that came from the INTERFET deployement was rocks and the odd molotov cocktail thrown at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.

Of course, the chinese as a group have much more restraint than Javanese peasants, so they get all of their destructive reactions done by non public channels. Genius!