Americans voicing their protest against China’s inhumane treatment of religious and ethnic minority group Uighur Muslims in their Xinjiang province is nothing new. Although this time it’s not China but American grown Netflix that has disappointed them.
A group of Republican senators in US issued a letter to Netflix’s Ted Sarandos as a protest against their latest project ‘The Three-Body Problem’ based on Chinese author Liu Cixin’s sci-fi trilogy ‘The Three-Body Problem’. Under its $300 million overall deal, Netflix has roped in the Game of Thrones’ creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to adapt it into a series that will be executive produced by Rian Johnson and Rosamund Pike.
The senators’ main concern is with Hugo Award winner Mr Liu’s ideology and support for Chinese government’s policies for Uighur Muslims that are considered to be in violation of basic human right by the American government. In their letter the senators accused Netflix of ‘normalizing’ the Chinese treatment of the group by making a series on his books.
To this Netflix’s VP of Global Public Policy, Dean Garfield has given an apt but strong response in a Q&A format. In his clarification the Netflix executive said it’s the author who supports his government’s policies and not Netflix or the show’s creators. Moreover, Liu Cixin is not involved in the show’s creation for Netflix despite it being adapted from his book.
Beginning with reminding the senators that Netflix does not operate a service in China, Mr. Garfield further said in the statement that “We do not agree with his (Mr. Liu) comments, which are entirely unrelated to his book or this Netflix show.”
Netflix while standing up for their content and its merit have made their point pretty clear to the senators whose letter, after the response, looks half thought out. Even though Netflix might have gained a win in the first battle of this exchange of words, the bigger war seems imminent, given the strong stand American government has been taking against Chinese firms, both public and private, in the form of various trade sanctions in the recent past.
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