Disney’s live-action Mulan movie continues to be the headache that keeps on giving this week, as THR reports that the massive entertainment company has come under increasing scrutiny for the film’s decision to film in—and thank the government of—China’s Xinjiang region. Said critiques include pointing out that the film’s credits apparently specifically thank the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau in Turpan, an organization that has become notorious in recent years for operating “re-education” camps targeting the region’s Uighur Muslim population, in numbers that have been reported as high as a million people forcibly interred.
Mulan had already faced a fair amount of censure ahead of its release last weekend, thanks in part to a social media post made last year by star Liu Yifei that seemed to show support of the Hong Kong police against protesters in the city. The film’s namechecking of Xinjiang authorities—and its willingness to film in a region where the camps reportedly operate in mass numbers, in what’s been labeled a “cultural genocide” by some—has now drawn censure from everyone from human rights groups to right-wing legislators (including bearded potato Ted Cruz), condemning Disney for what’s being seen as a turning a blind eye to the Chinese government’s actions in the region.
Disney has so far refused to comment on the backlash against the film (which is also doing pretty crappy at the Chinese box office, apparently, despite ostensibly being designed to appeal in part to the country’s massive film market). Boycott movements against the film have continued to build across the world, including in the U.S., Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.