China pulls out of Tokyo film festival

China’s latest film exports will not be on display at the 23rd annual Tokyo film festival thanks to a spat over Taiwan sovereignty: The head of the Chinese delegation, Jiang Ping, told festival organizers that the Taiwanese delegation must not attend the festival under the name Taiwan, but as "Chinese Taipei," which Taiwan used while ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

China's latest film exports will not be on display at the 23rd annual Tokyo film festival thanks to a spat over Taiwan sovereignty:

China’s latest film exports will not be on display at the 23rd annual Tokyo film festival thanks to a spat over Taiwan sovereignty:

The head of the Chinese delegation, Jiang Ping, told festival organizers that the Taiwanese delegation must not attend the festival under the name Taiwan, but as "Chinese Taipei," which Taiwan used while participating in the Olympic Games, shortly before celebrities began to walk down a green carpet to mark the start of the festival.

Jiang, also deputy director-general of the Film Bureau of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT), told reporters, "We protested against the organizers introducing the two delegations as ‘China and Taiwan.’ And our request to introduce Taiwan as "Chinese Taipei or China’s Taiwan" was rejected by the organizers."

Of course, this will be seen as part of a larger issue than what Ang Lee’s homeland gets to call itself. Anti-Japanese protests broke out in half a dozen Chinese cities over the weekend and the Japanese government has formally protested the presence of Chinese military patrol boats near disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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