• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Op-eds China

More Uyghur Criticism of Donnie Yen: Wasn’t He More Guilty than Will Smith?

03/20/2023Kok Bayraq |

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and was banned from the Oscars for ten years. Donnie Yen slapped the Hongkongers and the Uyghurs. He was not banned.

by Kok Bayraq

Will Smith and Donnie Yen.
Double standards: Will Smith, left (credits), and Donnie Yen, right (credits).

In 2022, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars for ten years for slapping host Chris Rock. Unfortunately, in 2023, the Academy failed to follow this protocol by inviting action star Donnie Yen, whose participation was a slap to Hongkongers and Uyghurs.

As discussed in Bitter Winter last week, in January this year Donnie Yen was appointed a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the highest political advisory body in China.

China’s policies toward the Uyghurs have been recognized as genocide or at risk of causing genocide by more than twenty countries and organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union, and the US government. That means Donnie Yen was appointed to a council advocating genocide. China is not even hiding its plans of genocide, by ordering to officials in Uyghur region “To break their lineage, break their roots.”

Yen appeared on screen at two meetings held in China last week and stated, “It is a great honor to be a new member of the CPPCC.” Who wouldn’t consider this a slap to the Uyghur people—the target of the genocide—, the prisoners who fought for their rights, human rights activists abroad, and journalists and researchers who reported on the genocide?

He previously accused peaceful Hong Kong protesters of being rioters. Additionally, his praise for China’s development also covers up China’s genocide and crimes against humanity, and further hurts millions of people imprisoned in China and its occupied territories—East Turkistan, Tibet, and South Mongolia.

Will Smith’s attack on Chris Rock was more than a physical blow; it was a blow to Rock’s dignity, and it deserved punishment. Knowing that violence is such a great threat, how can AMPAS ignore a state that commits genocide? Despite the loud calls with 109 thousand signatures against Donnie’s appearance at the Oscars, the actor and his wife, walked the red carpet on the morning of March 13.

If AMPAS were unaware of the genocide, let them look at Havagul’s tears and the state of the hostages! Let them look at leaked documents that call for “no mercy” for Uyghurs! If AMPAS hasn’t heard that more than one million families have been torn apart and have suffered for six years due to the concentration camps set up by China, then the movie organization is disconnected from the realities of major human rights problems in the world.

Donnie Yen once stated that he did not wish to get political. Isn’t it meddling in politics to take on the role of a political adviser to a country that is committing genocide? Isn’t it a form of political intervention to help distracting from the genocide in China by complaining about CNN and the BBC, which exposed it? Isn’t Yen at the forefront of politics by acting in Mulan—a tool of China’s colonial history propaganda—and bragging “I have soul in my movies” to the world?

Donnie Yen knows very well that his films will be banned from the Chinese market if they would include any criticism of the CCP. Therefore, his desire for “non-political involvement” is a fake.

Donnie Yen’s bio also verifies that he has no integrity. He was born in Guangzhou, China, moved to Hong Kong when he was 2 years old, and moved to the United States when he was 11. In 2009, after living in the United States for 35 years, he renounced his American passport and accepted Chinese citizenship—because he no longer needed American education and training. Simultaneously, he gained significant money and fame. He wanted to appeal to the Chinese market of 1.5 billion consumers and thus sold his betrayal as patriotism, stating, “I am 100% Chinese.”

It is clear that Donnie Yen, who grew up taking advantage of the democratic system that helped him becoming famous, did not find these advantages suitable for 1.5 billion Chinese. This means his Chinese patriotism is also a fake.

What is a hypocrite like Donnie Yen, who grew up in the free world and has denied freedom to others, doing at the most prestigious art scene in the free world? 

Supporting the wrong cause? Richard Gere (credits).
Supporting the wrong cause? Richard Gere (credits).

The AMPAS, has banned actor Richard Gere from attending the Oscars for twenty years for his criticizing China for the “horrendous, horrendous human rights situation” in Tibet. This is another ludicrous move compared to the invitation extended to Donnie Yen, who supports and serves in the CCP’s inhumane regime. The sins of the six American actors who have been banned from the Oscars are less serious than the sin of Donnie Yen in his support of a genocide.

What is the rationale and standard of this decision? Is a pre-condition for being featured at the Oscars to support and not criticize China? Are actors supporting China promoted, and those who oppose the regime banned? Aren’t supporters of the CCP just as involved in politics as its critics?

Will Smith and Richard Gere told no lies; their actions and intentions were clear, and Smith’s admission of his mistake was another indicator of his honesty. Will Smith has been banned from the red carpet for ten years. Therefore, Donnie Yen should not be allowed anywhere near the Oscars until he apologizes for his complicity with dictators and compensates the victims. Will Smith slapped the face of a friend, but Donnie Yen is crushing the hearts of millions of people.

Tagged With: Muslim Uyghurs

Kok Bayraq
Kok Bayraq

Kok Bayraq is a political émigré from East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang) and an opponent of the Sinicization of his homeland. He left China in 1994 when his journalism got him “into trouble with the authorities,”and is now living in Washington, D.C.. His unique thoughts and feelings published in Taipei Times and Global Voice comment on the ongoing Uyghur genocide.

Related articles

  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory

    The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory

  • Xinjiang’s Grand Kuqa Mosque Profaned in a Chinese Propaganda Video

    Xinjiang’s Grand Kuqa Mosque Profaned in a Chinese Propaganda Video

  • Alibaba Software Selectively Monitors Trips To and From Xinjiang 

    Alibaba Software Selectively Monitors Trips To and From Xinjiang 

  • Thailand and Pakistan: No Friends of Uyghur Refugees

    Thailand and Pakistan: No Friends of Uyghur Refugees

Keep Reading

  • CCP Scholars Suggest to Build China’s “Second Capital” in Xinjiang
    CCP Scholars Suggest to Build China’s “Second Capital” in Xinjiang

    This political move would solve an intractable historical problem: East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang) lies outside China’s Great Wall.

  • The US-China Balloon Crisis: A Uyghur View
    The US-China Balloon Crisis: A Uyghur View

    Writing in Bitter Winter last year, I prophesied—without a crystal ball—that something similar would happen. And worse incidents in the future, too.

  • Remembering the Barin Revolution (April 5, 1990 )
    Remembering the Barin Revolution (April 5, 1990 )

    33 years ago villagers in Akto country, East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang), rebelled against the Chinese power. They were all killed.

  • A Uyghur View: Putin Got His Arrest Warrant—Xi Jinping Should Be Next
    A Uyghur View: Putin Got His Arrest Warrant—Xi Jinping Should Be Next

    The arrest warrant for Putin gave comfort to Ukrainians and hope to Uyghurs.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Chinese Muslims Told Mosques Should Preach Communism Too by Ma Wenyan
  • Hebei: Friends Pray in Your Home, the CCP Cuts Off Your Water and Electricity by Lai Mingxia
  • China’s “Query System for Islamic, Catholic, and Christian Clergy,” Another Tool for Repression by He Yuyan
  • Christian Students Asked to Study 20th Congress and Celebrate “Heroes” Who Betrayed the Church by Zhang Chunhua
  • Russia: Two Evangelical Pastors Prosecuted, Falsely Accused of Raising Money for the Ukrainian Army by Massimo Introvigne
  • Filipino Catholic Priest Arrested for Slandering Unrecognized Marian Apparitions by Massimo Introvigne
  • Pakistan, Young Christian Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy by Massimo Introvigne

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY