 If you're a viewer of this show, you might remember that almost a year ago we released an episode about the influence China's Communist Party censorship has on the American entertainment industry called China Doesn't Want You to Watch This Video. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there's a big problem at the heart of Disney's newest live-action release, Mulan. And I don't just mean their distribution strategy. With its $200 million production budget, not including the cost of marketing, putting Mulan out on VOD instead of releasing the film in theaters was an incredibly high stakes bet. Even for a giant like Disney. Box office numbers for Mulan aren't out yet, but given the $30 price tag on top of an existing Disney Plus subscription and the fact that it'll be available at no extra charge on the platform in December, I'd be curious as to how many people have actually seen it yet. Full disclosure, I haven't. But this video isn't about the movie, it's about Disney. You see, some sharp-eyed viewers took a closer look at the credits for Mulan and noticed something disturbing. Beyond the usual capitulation to the Chinese government we talked about before, for this movie Disney specifically thanked eight different Chinese governmental agencies, including four propaganda departments and a public security bureau in the Xinjiang province. So why does that matter? It's where the Chinese government is perpetrating a slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Uyghur Muslims right now. Hit the subscribe button, ring the bell icon to get notifications, and let's get into it on this heartbreaking and infuriating short edition of Out of Frame. A lot of people aren't really aware of what's happening to the Uyghurs at the hands of the Communist Party, so it might not be immediately obvious why so many people are upset about Disney's special thanks section for Mulan. According to Chinese government claims, Xinjiang is an autonomous province within China and their interactions with the Uyghur people are for the purpose of assimilating them into Chinese culture and for providing job training centers. According to other sources, like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, and, you know, people were actually there, the reality is far more insidious. The Chinese government and the Uyghur Muslims living in China have had tense relations for years. After a brief and ultimately failed bid for independence in the early 20th century, the cultural, religious, and economic restrictions placed on the Uyghurs gradually became more and more oppressive. Now, the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China has stated, To be clear, the other forms of abuse mentioned are cutting Uyghur birth rates through forced sterilization, forced abortions, and forced long-term contraceptive measures like IUDs. These acts by China's government meet the accepted definition of genocide. Any one of these actions would be reason enough for protest. Taken together, they're enraging. China's Communist Party is currently engaged in a major abuse of human rights targeted against a specific religious group. And it's all happening primarily in Xinjiang Province, whose multiple propaganda agencies Disney so profusely thanked in the credits for Mulan, a movie that also stars several notable Chinese actors who have made numerous public statements supporting the CCP. It's not a good look for Disney. And look, I'm pretty sensitive to the challenges of filmmaking. As I said in the episode on Chinese censorship last year, making a movie in China featuring Chinese locations and getting it screened in Chinese theaters was always going to require some level of interaction and compliance with the Chinese government, just like it would if you made a movie anywhere else. But if that means having to thank their propaganda ministries while ignoring genocide happening a few miles from your set, maybe you should reconsider the whole production. Also on the long list of things I find incredibly frustrating about this situation is the level of hypocrisy on display by Disney. Back in May of last year, Bob Iger suggested that it would be very difficult to continue filming in the state of Georgia, where I live, because of the recent passage of a pretty strict anti-abortion bill. The company was taking a public stance on a moral and political issue while strongly insinuating that their values would guide their production decisions going forward. Iger said that he couldn't see how it would be practical for Disney to continue to shoot in Georgia if the heartbeat bill was passed. That's clearly their prerogative, but apparently Disney's moral compass didn't have anything to say about the practicality of filming in a province where ethnic cleansing was and still is actually happening. Regardless of your opinion on abortion law in Georgia, this behavior is a testament to just how skewed Disney's priorities are. Maybe they thought that since so few people know what's happening to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, no one would really notice that they thank the agencies in charge of overseeing as many as 3 million imprisoned Muslims. But if that's true, it only makes it worse. What we do when we think no one will notice matters most of all. Beyond issues of character, this kind of behavior also perpetuates the harmful stereotype that businesses and business people, all of them, are nasty, greedy, and unethical, and will do literally anything if it means patting their bottom line. And it ultimately betrays one of the most important themes of Mulan itself. Mulan is supposed to be about a young woman who defies the expectations imposed on her by others, bucking the notion of go along to get along, to do the things she knows to be right. It's about a heroic individual standing up to an oppressive society. That's not what happened here. I'm never gonna tell you what movies you should or shouldn't watch. A lot of people worked on Mulan who had no control over these decisions, and may not have even known that any of this was going on a few miles from their production. And it is possible to separate the art from the artists and from the circumstances that created it. Whether you pay to see Mulan or not is a decision only you can make. As for me, I will not be making time for this film. Instead, I'll use those few hours to remind people that Chinese communism in the 21st century looks a lot like it did in the 20th century. After a few decades where it seemed like they might be opening up and becoming a more free society, it's clear now that they're headed right back to where they were under Chairman Mao. I don't have the power to fix that, but I do have the power to remember that how we treat others and allow others to be treated matters. And the choices all of us make, from which movies to attend as audience members to which we produce as filmmakers, have an impact on the world around us. I don't have to stand by and let China's communist horror show go unnoticed or ignore Disney's decision to praise the same agencies that are perpetrating a genocide on the other side of the world. And neither do you. Hey everybody, thanks so much for watching. This episode dealt with some pretty tricky subject matter that I know is a real sensitive spot for a lot of people, so I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. But let's make a special effort to be kind to one another down there. If you haven't checked out our podcast, Out of Frame Behind The Scenes, please go give it a listen. We think you'll like it. You can find the audio version wherever you get your podcast, or you can watch it on our new YouTube channel. The link for that is in the description below, along with an extensive list of articles if you want to learn more about what's going on with Mulan, Disney, and the Uyghurs in China. And as always, be sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel. Hit that bell icon and look for our brand new Out of Frame accounts on Twitter and Instagram. See you next time.