US senators urge Netflix to scrap plans of TV series based on Chinese sci-fi book, citing Uighurs

US senators urge Netflix to discard the idea of making the TV series, that the online streaming platform recently announced based on the writings of the Chinese author Liu Cixin, citing Uighurs.

As being reported, five Republican United States senators have urged Netflix Inc to reconsider plans to adopt a Chinese science-fiction book trilogy into a TV series because according to them, the author has defended the Chinese government’s treatment of Uighur Muslims.

The Three-Body Problem and two sequels were written by Chinese author Liu Cixin.

Earlier this month, Netflix announced the production of an English-language live-action TV series based on the book, led by D B Weiss and David Benioff, the creators of HBO megahit Game of Thrones. and Liu to serve as a consulting producer on the project.

The senators urged Netflix to “seriously reconsider the implications of providing a platform to Mr. Liu in producing this project.”

In a letter to Netflix, the senators pointed to remarks by Liu to the New Yorker magazine in 2019 about China’s clampdown on ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region.

“If anything, the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty,” Liu said. “If you were to loosen up the country a bit, the consequences would be terrifying.”

The US and human rights groups have criticised China’s treatment of the Uighurs.

However, China’s foreign ministry has repeatedly rejected the existence of internment camps in Xinjiang, calling the facilities vocational and educational institutions and denouncing what it calls anti-China forces of smearing its Xinjiang policy.