Netflix Responds To US Senators On Chinese Science Fiction Series

The streaming website Netflix has responded to a letter from five US Republican senators regarding the conversion of a Chinese science fiction book and its sequel into a TV series.

U.S. senators have asked Netflix to reconsider the series, saying the author defended the Chinese government’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in the book.

Earlier this month, Netflix announced the conversion of the “The Three-Body Problem” two sequels written by Liu Cixin into live-action, led by  D.B Weiss and David Benioff, creators of HBO’s mega-hit series Game of Thrones.

At the same time, author Liu Cixin is working as a consulting producer for the project.

Now, however, Netflix has responded to senators by saying that Netflix does not agree with author Liu Cixin’s views on the Chinese government’s treatment of Muslims.

Dean Garfield, vice president of Netflix Global Public Policy, responded in a letter to US senators.

“Leo Cixin is the author of the book, not the show’s creator,” he wrote. “We don’t agree with him.”

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Dean Garfield said “Mr Liu is the author of the book not the creator of this show. We do not agree with his comments, which are entirely unrelated to his book or this Netflix show,”

In a letter to Netflix, the US senators quoted Leo Saxon’s statement to the New Yorker magazine in 2019 in which he spoke about China’s attitude towards Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

Leo Cixin had said that if anything, the government was helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty.

The treatment of Uighurs in China has been criticized by the United States and human rights groups.

However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has repeatedly denied the existence of concentration camps in Xinjiang, calling them vocational and educational centres.

The Foreign Ministry called the allegations a “conspiracy” by anti-China forces against Xinjiang’s policy.

In a letter to Netflix, the senators, led by Marsha Blackburn, said the company’s decision to adopt Liu Cixin’s work was tantamount to normalizing the Chinese government’s “crimes.”

She wrote that despite such atrocities in (Xinjiang), there are only complex corporate decisions.

The senators urged Netflix to seriously consider providing a platform for Leo Cixin to produce the project.

Note that Netflix is available in more than 190 countries, but it does not operate in China.